Spire (old version)
by dakeyras
Summary: It took them years to realise what had happened that day. By then, it no longer mattered. Team Seven face new challenges as they try to climb towards their goals. AU with time travel (that isn't a main character for once). Rewritten version is up as 'Spire' on my profile page.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: If you think you've found a plot error in the story, PM me, but a lot of the time it'll be either a clue, or one of the characters having imperfect knowledge. I intend a lot of the plot to be solvable before it's revealed, but it won't be too easy (hopefully). I have made a few small changes to canon deliberately (e.g. ages are changed – genin start at 15 because it's much easier to write realistically, and then after that, the timeline is stretched a bit so there aren't any twenty-year-olds who've surpassed every living ninja).

-O-

The figure woke up at the same time as every other morning. What made the start of this morning in particular unique, however, was that it seemed surprised by that fact. It looked around as though the room it was in was both the most familiar thing in the world to it, and yet at the same time incredibly strange. An observer would note that it soon stopped marvelling at its surroundings. The look on its face was... _intent_. But after just a moment the face smoothed itself out, and once more there was nothing that made the start of this day different to any other.

It was a normal morning in how the figure showered, dressed itself, and took great care with how every strand of hair fell. It was a normal morning in how the figure ate, picking at several small dishes in the company of one other taller figure. It was a normal morning in how the figure put on a pair of sandals and left the house, waving goodbye without turning around. It was most certainly _not_ , however, a normal morning after that point.

The figure visited several places in the village it was in, including the large tower with a stylised leaf on the front. It talked to several people, with conversational topics ranging from weapons, to information, to gossip, to relationship advice. It collected a handful of items that seemed to have more edges and spikes than was normal and wrote long notes with a fast and sure hand. All these things it then dropped off in a variety of places – including once the pocket of a conversational partner. Most curiously, however, given the speed and urgency with which the figure moved when out of sight, it occasionally stopped to seemingly stare at passers-by from hidden vantage points, empty hands moving carefully. There was nothing particularly interesting about who it watched; they were invariably ninja, but none were doing anything more strenuous than walking down a street.

After most of the day had elapsed, it purchased a large plain scroll, some writing brushes and an oversized pot of ink. It wrote long into the night, working until most of the village slept around it. Once it was satisfied that the scroll held every scrap of knowledge that it should, it re-rolled it, fastened the ties on the outside, placed it on the large and sturdy desk in the room, and lay down. After steeling itself for a moment, the figure formed a set of handseals and instantly collapsed backwards, sleeping.

At the time, there was nobody who saw everything that had happened, and nobody who understood the strange purpose that guided the actions. But soon – shortly after the figure awoke the next morning, in fact – there would be.

-O-

Naruto Uzumaki woke up in the dark of pre-dawn, full of energy and motivation. His alarm hadn't gone off yet, but he leapt out of bed and got ready at breakneck speed anyway. Apart from excitement at the graduation exam tomorrow – and this time he'd pass for sure! - he also wanted to practice some more beforehand.

As he rushed around his small apartment, eating with one hand while trying (and failing) to get dressed with the other, he was already thinking about teams. The small sheaf of notes he'd found outside his doorstep yesterday morning had had some really useful information on it, and the pages were sprawled over his kitchen table right now, along with several dirty dishes and a spare T-shirt.

Anyone who knew Naruto (and sadly that list of people was fairly short) could have told you how unusual this was. He wasn't lazy so much as lacking in focus, and it didn't usually take long before he had a more interesting idea than practising with kunai or punching logs. The level of focus he'd gained recently was very unusual, and normally only went into sparring at the Academy or planning and executing mischief.

Nevertheless, off he went to a little-used corner of a training field. He wasn't thinking of anything in particular, but without conscious planning, he'd already decided on what he would be doing to help pass his graduation exam – lots and lots of practice with shuriken and kunai throwing.

The last few times he'd practised his throwing in his free time, he'd given up after a few failures. The rote muscle memorisation that the training tried to produce meant that his mind was free to be distracted by all sorts of wonderful ideas as to what else he could be doing, and invariably he'd find half a dozen that sounded better than more failure, especially where everyone could see his mistakes.

But not today. Today, Naruto didn't care about missing the target, as long as he could correct his throws afterwards. After setting up his equipment and taking off his goggles forty paces from the targets, he threw the dozen kunai he'd brought. His first attempt only put kunai into five of the twelve targets and missed the log completely once. The dozen shuriken that followed were slightly more accurate, but overall he barely reached the passing grade for the exam he'd be taking _in just over a day's time_. With that thought in mind, Naruto gathered the knives up again, easily pulling them out of the shallow cuts they'd made. He stepped back to his mark and threw again. And again. And again. Until his hands were covered in tiny nicks from where he'd handled the sharp shuriken, the ground in front of the target logs was covered in small pieces of wood and bark, and the sun was well above the horizon.

Naruto set off for the Academy. He was late again, but this time, he would be stumbling through the door right after class started for a different reason than usual.

He waved at Iruka with a cheeky wink, ignored his classmates' complaints at his being late for the fourth day in a row, and sat in the nearest open seat. He had a wide smile on his face.

-O-

Sasuke Uchiha turned the plain red comb over in his hands. It had belonged to his mother, once. Now it was his, just like everything else of her's. He'd thought it lost until that morning when he had spotted the corner of it in a box in the attic. He remembered her running it through his hair when he was small.

"Sasuke, your turn to practice!" Iruka called, interrupting Sasuke's daydreams. He quickly slipped the comb into his pocket. This morning the class was revising the Transformation technique, thanks to Naruto clowning around again.

Sasuke swiftly stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. Most of the other students who were waiting were talking amongst themselves or otherwise not paying attention, but he knew that at least half a dozen were carefully watching. The pressure to perform felt natural after so long, even as it reminded of a time when he'd been under _real_ pressure, with a constant example of where he needed to be stronger, faster, better at his side. But thinking of that man was _not constructive_ , Sasuke angrily reminded himself. He turned his attention back to Iruka.

Concentrating for a moment, Sasuke pushed out a thin skin of chakra, using a single handseal as a focus. The soft puff of chakra-based smoke around him dulled the sounds of the rest of the room. He thought of the appearance changes he wanted, then warped the chakra skin that was hidden in the smoke, changes propagating at the speed of thought. He let it solidify once it held an image of Iruka. Sasuke was mildly pleased to notice that there was less smoke from wasted chakra than last time, but the difference was small enough that anyone else's eyes wouldn't notice it.

As the smoke cleared, he saw his reflection in the mirror at the front of the room. Sasuke's transformation was almost perfect. Some of the lines on the face hadn't been the right depth, and the clothes looked too brightly green, rather than the slightly tan colour of anything that was designed to act as forest camouflage. Anyone paying close attention would be able to spot the disguise, but the point of the illusion was to _avoid_ any close attention, so Sasuke figured it was good enough overall. He crossed it off his mental checklist of skills to practice and realised with relish that he could spend the evening working on his only elemental jutsu: the Grand Fireball.

When Sasuke had walked to his seat again and sat back down, he pulled the comb out of his pocket once more. While it reminded him of all he'd lost, mostly it made him think of quiet, pleasant moments. Evenings as a family in front of the fire, being held in warm arms, the gentle rasp of comb on hair. Sasuke gently put it back in his pocket, and ran his fingers along the edge – for luck, he told himself.

-O-

Sakura Haruno headed home after the graduation exam, a skip in her step. Her passing had never been in doubt, but she'd not been sure of where she'd place. Top marks of all the girls in the class, that was really something. She'd mentioned it in front of Sasuke twice, and the first time he'd seemed quite surprised. He'd really _looked_ at her, as though he was re-evaluating her. Sakura was sure today's diary entry would be a very happy one. Her mum had even promised to cook her favourite dinner tonight.

"Oi! Sakura!" she heard a familiar voice call from behind her.

"What do you want, Ino?" Sakura couldn't help the slight hardness that crept into her voice, but if Ino heard it, she kept it hidden.

"Just... well done on the exam."

"Thanks. You too."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment before Ino broke the silence. "Look, this wasn't my idea. I found a note, and it had a bunch of useful advice, and some notes on things we don't normally learn about yet, and it also said to talk to you. So here I am."

"I found a note like that as well! Do you know where it's from?" Sakura asked. Her notes had been fairly straightforward, mostly describing a chakra exercise that strengthened her hands and arms. It still wasn't working perfectly for her, but she'd made some progress. "I thought it was just the instructors unofficially letting me work on more advanced material."

Ino nodded. "That makes sense – that it was the instructors, I mean. Who else could it be, that would know our strengths and weaknesses that well? ...Hey, we've talked for almost a minute without insulting each other."

"Yeah," Sakura said. "It's... nice, I suppose. I've missed this a bit – having someone to talk to like this." Following the advice at the end of the notes – 'be open to restarting old friendships' – was natural as breathing, once she'd decided it came from the instructors.

"Swing by the flower shop sometime, and we can catch up properly. I need to go run some errands now, but it was good to talk." Ino waved as she jumped up and onto a rooftop, then darted out of sight.

When Sakura went to bed that night, she was still thinking about Ino and the notes. The suggestions that she'd received had turned out to be uncannily useful, and it seemed that the same applied to Ino. Who else was this happening to?

-O-

Iruka Umino raced towards the next hiding place that Naruto might have fled to. There was only a single thought repeated in his head. _Why would he take the scroll?_

He'd always known that Naruto had it hard. He'd not had too much sympathy when he saw the endless mischief and vandalism the boy had become known for, but looking back, it was easy to recognise it as a cry for help. Or was he adjusting too far the other way now? Now that there was something real, something important, at stake? Nobody knew what would happen if Naruto tried to use the Fourth's sealing technique, the same technique that had trapped the Demon Fox in Naruto's stomach. At worst, the seal would break and the whole village would suffer.

 _Focus!_ Naruto had taken the Scroll of Seven Seals for some reason. Iruka had to find him before he hurt himself trying to do something with it. The village was sealed – his fellow teacher Mizuki had been one of those called away to form a perimeter. Nobody, whether Naruto or an infiltrator, would be getting out with (or without) the scroll.

Naruto would have been found by now if he wasn't hiding away somewhere, that much was guaranteed. If he'd been killed – if the seal had broken – the whole village would know. So, by process of elimination, he'd gone to ground inside Konoha. He wouldn't be anywhere he'd been tracked down to before, so that ruled out the western training grounds and most of the south of the village. Iruka had just checked the north, so now he would swing around the east and check the forested areas. If he went near Mizuki's place in the perimeter, he could ask for any advice Naruto's other teacher had.

There! A speck of orange amongst the foliage! Iruka fluidly changed course, leaping down next to his student. "I've found you at last!"

"Wrong! _I've_ found _you!_ "

As Naruto explained what he was doing there, Iruka noticed the confusion he was feeling. Something wasn't right. He tried dispelling a genjutsu, but nothing changed. Then, Naruto's story meandered towards some relevant information. "Mizuki told me about the scroll. And this place too." And suddenly Iruka knew.

Iruka flung Naruto to the side. This was _really_ bad. If Mizuki fled with the scroll, he would be chased. He wouldn't make it far. The only way he could escape would be to set up a more immediate threat to the village, that might draw away attention and either delay or outright kill the pursuers. _Like Naruto..._

As the knives cut through his vest and into his body, Iruka was already planning the best way out of this. Unbidden, a line from a poem someone had left on his desk that morning entered his mind.

Mizuki looked surprised that his first volley hadn't killed his target but seemed content to just stand and watch now that he'd lost the element of surprise. The traitor had a small grin on his face as he looked down at his targets, and two huge shuriken strapped to his back. The branch he stood on was too high to reach easily and wide enough that it would cover him against any return attacks.

"Naruto. Whatever Mizuki says, he's trying to trick you. He's a traitor to the village. It's all mind games. Don't listen!" Iruka yelled out.

For a while, it even looked like it might work. It was helped, Iruka thought, by the fact that Naruto _really_ didn't want to believe Mizuki's story, and the number of taunts and insults Mizuki was using.

"How do I know you're not just lying to get me to give you the scroll?" It was a question that couldn't really be answered, and Mizuki seemed to flounder a bit. He had to realise that time was not on his side, but he still seemed to be stalling for some reason.

"Naruto. Listen to me," Iruka said. "I'm an orphan too. I know what it feels like to have no-one. But if you show me the technique you learned today, and it's good enough, I can pass you. A field promotion. You'll have a team." _And hopefully, nothing like this will ever happen to you again._

Naruto's face lit up, and he turned to face Iruka, hands ready in an unusual seal. But it seemed that Mizuki's patience had worn out. He sent a windmill shuriken, large enough to bisect his target, whispering down towards Naruto, who didn't have either the speed to dodge it or the skill to block it. So Iruka did the only thing he could, and _moved_.

He braced for the last thing he expected to feel in this life. He prepared for an impact that never came. He heard the voice he'd been praying for, and felt the tension slip out of his body.

"Mizuki, you are a traitor to the Village of the Hidden Leaf. Your sentence, to be carried out as soon as is expedient, is execution. Take him away to interrogation first." Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was measured, calm, and regal. Iruka could have hugged the man if his legs weren't about to give way. He smiled down at the boy looking up at him, unshed tears in his eyes.

In the corner of his eye, he saw the Sandaime walk over to them. His voice was gentler now the danger had passed. "Naruto, come here, and I'll tell you the story of how the Yondaime built the greatest cage the world has ever seen, and put a single person in charge of guarding it."

Suddenly there were a hundred Narutos all around the Hokage, appearing in a huge burst of chakra-laden smoke. "Hey, do I pass?"

-O-

Kakashi Hatake peered down at the three students he'd been given this year. Unusually, it seemed someone had taken a special interest in giving him the team most likely to crack his shell. It was clear why he'd received those particular archetypes – there was one clown (Obito), one talented and aggressive loner (him), and one talented but not very driven girl (Rin). But these three new genin had little else in common with his original team, and he refused to be swayed by attempted emotional manipulation anyway. It set a bad precedent.

He'd not been ordered on, or even offered, any sensitive or high-importance missions in the last few years, and Kakashi knew why. He was considered a flight risk. A talented jonin with no close ties, spends a lot of time thinking of the past and all his dead teammates, slightly too fond of alcohol and women – it was a formula that he'd seen lead to a desertion rate as high as one in three. And now he was part of that group, and Konoha didn't trust him anymore.

Once he accepted a team, the village would give him some time to grow attached – they called it the Will of Fire, and while he didn't like it, it was much better than the way other villages enforced loyalty – and then send him on dangerous missions again, and he didn't have the drive necessary to keep up. Not anymore. There was no-one left for him to prove himself to. As long as he could keep up with Might Guy, he considered himself good enough. Starting to care about, and then probably losing, a team of fresh genin would take him out of the comfortable rut he was currently in.

Kakashi was professional enough that his face didn't so much as twitch while those thoughts passed through his mind. "So, why don't we do introductions?" After he went first, giving vague non-answers, he noticed a detail that hadn't stuck out at first. Naruto was wearing goggles.

...There weren't many ninja who wore goggles.

Kakashi could count them on one hand.

"...I hate waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook," Naruto was saying when Kakashi started paying attention again.

"Why are you wearing those?" Kakashi asked, gesturing at Naruto's face. Nothing that a new teacher wouldn't usually ask of his charges, he told himself, and if that wasn't his true motivation, no-one needed to know that.

"I was gonna stop wearing them when I got my headband, but they're good for stopping smoke from getting in your eyes and stuff. So now I have my headband on my shoulder instead. Why, do you want a pair too?"

"No. They can hurt your peripheral vision, so I'd recommend getting rid of them." Accurate advice, and it would make it less uncomfortable for him to look Naruto in the eyes when he failed him.

Naruto seemed to consider it for a moment, before nodding. "Anyway, my goal is to surpass all the Hokage and gain the acknowledgement of every person in the village!" _Save the most surprising for last,_ Kakashi thought to himself.

Sasuke went next. It was roughly what Kakashi had expected. Lots of brooding about killing Itachi Uchiha, despite the fact that Itachi was probably the most dangerous man alive and could almost certainly take on Kakashi with both eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.

The only surprising part was the restoring of the Uchiha clan – not the goal, but that Sasuke would talk about it so openly. Did he not realise that he was basically announcing that he was planning to sleep with a bunch of women and get them all pregnant? Then again, if he was fifteen now, and hadn't had a chat with his parents about where babies come from before the massacre, then that would mean that his new teacher (after Kakashi failed them all and they had to retake the year) would have to sit him down and explain a few facts of life to him. Yet another reason to be glad that he wasn't taking on a team.

Sakura's introduction was unexpected, and not in a good way. She seemed temperamentally unsuited to the life of a ninja. Not counting outliers like Itachi, the main ceiling that ninja had was drive. A complete nobody who worked their ass off could be one of the elite – if they were willing to give up _every_ distraction and pleasure for the rest of their life. Guy was the perfect example, and Sakura was his opposite. Skill and natural talent in almost indecent amounts, but no drive at all to improve as a ninja.

Kakashi looked at her – _really_ looked, taking in all the minor details and small tells that he wouldn't usually bother with. Soft hands, with no callouses from training or small cuts from frequently handling blades. Thin arms and legs that spoke of good chakra control, but little starting strength that could be multiplied. Long hair that was a liability in even a schoolyard brawl, and it wasn't even put up into a ponytail. Her stance, huddled over and clutching her knees, added to everything else to paint a picture of someone who was in over their head, and just starting to realise it.

He analyzed Sasuke as well. Strength was there, and plenty of it, as well as control and skill. The arms could have been his own at that age, except for the shorter sleeves, and Sasuke's stance kept his hands near his mouth. Kakashi didn't doubt that Sasuke had at least one technique he could quickly launch from there, and the outline of a kunai under each wristwrap enhanced the image of someone ready to fight at any second. It was very impressive for a genin nominee, and more competent than most chunin exam candidates, although it remained to be seen if Sasuke's other skills were at the same level as his paranoia.

Naruto had calloused hands with no cuts at all. It was quite easy for Kakashi to deduce a regenerative ability – Naruto's weapon skills were good enough that it was clear he practised regularly, but not so good that he never made mistakes. The orange outfit was a horrible idea for hiding in forests, but somehow he made it work – and wasn't that a nice ace to have, if you could disappear in an outfit that bold? He was the current weakest member, no doubt about it, but Naruto definitely had enough drive to one day excel. His goal was just as out of reach as Sasuke's, and he seemed just as determined to reach it despite all the possible setbacks.

"Alright," Kakashi said, now that the new genin nominees were watching him expectantly. "We have survival training tomorrow."

He talked over the questions and complaints. "This is a different kind of training. _I_ will be your opponent." There was a surefire way to separate the wheat from the chaff, and that was mental pressure. He waited for the confusion to reach a maximum before he started laughing gently.

"There's a secret purpose to the training. If you fail..." he built the pressure to a fever pitch. "You go back to the academy. It would be as if you failed the graduation exam. And your odds aren't good, either – two-thirds of the teams get sent back every year. Of the 27 graduates, there will usually be 9 genin."

Chuckling, he enjoyed the looks on their faces. Naruto was trying to hide his surprise, Sasuke looked angry, and Sakura seemed defeated already. Kakashi fielded their questions without offering much information of value, and gave them some misleading advice to top it off, before heading off to his favourite pub. He had a pretty girl to meet, and a new book to keep him company while he waited.

-O-

A/N: I've deliberately taken Kakashi in an unusual direction. I think he's more interesting as an unmotivated jonin with no close ties to anyone who enjoys beer and girls, and it makes a lot of sense with his behaviour in early canon (late to everything, quite laid-back, usually fails teams rather than take them on). I know that it clashes with later canon, but he won't be a static character – everyone (especially those whose POV I've used so far) will develop in some way.

Also, Sasuke's got PTSD and Sakura will be scared of ninja life, while Naruto's attention span can best be measured in seconds. Hopefully, I can avoid the common pitfall of making a character's weaknesses just be minor quirks that are mentioned once and then forgotten.

I'm planning to update around once a week. I have a complete plot planned out, and right now I expect it to take between 80k and 100k words to write the full story, but that could easily balloon out to twice the length.


	2. Chapter 2

Sasuke walked back home after the rocky team introduction had finally finished. Kakashi looked like a massive slacker, and he was supposed to be the teacher! Naruto and Sakura both were clearly much weaker than he was, and had been as far back as he could remember. That gap would surely only widen now that the semi-capable chunin from the Academy had been replaced by a single lazy fool.

He turned into the lane that held his house. Rows of untended gardens spread out on both sides, and the small one- and two-story houses were starting to break down. The road was empty and the faint sound of birdsong was all that broke the silence.

The slight movement in the very edge of his peripheral vision made him instantly slide a kunai out of his holster. He turned just enough to glimpse the possible threat, then relaxed when he spotted Ino.

"Hey!" she called. Sasuke didn't want to talk to her particularly; she didn't usually have anything useful to say and lacked his drive. In short, she was much like everyone else in the Academy. On the other hand, complete isolation was a well-documented risk to a healthy mind and body, and prevention was better than a cure.

"Hello," he replied. He caught the bundle she threw at him, immediately guessing at the weight and contents. _Most likely a set of knives of some sort. They're too long for kunai._ "What's this?"

"I thought, since we're on different teams now, and we might not see each other in a while, I'd give you this, so you have something to, y'know, remember me by," Ino forced out. She was blushing slightly, so he politely looked away for a moment rather than acknowledge her lack of composure. The cloth wrapped around the pair of short, slightly curved swords was a vibrant green colour, but the actual weapons were solid steel with standard camouflaged scabbards and no frills. The weight was nice, and as he hefted them, it was clear they were good quality craftsmanship.

"They're ideal as starting weapons. I thought you might like something with more reach than a kunai, and these seemed your style." Ino had regained her composure, but now it seemed like she was reciting a speech. "If you'd prefer something with a different length, I can exchange them for you, but since you've never used a sword before, that I've seen, I mean, I'm sure you've tried one out before, but it's good to use a short one first, they're easier to hide, and they aren't as heavy..."

"Thank you. It's a very thoughtful gift and I'll remember you fondly when I use them," Sasuke said. How could he show his gratitude without offering a gift back, which was impossible as he didn't have one ready, or committing to a future meeting? A half-forgotten lesson on manners prompted his next offer. "Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?"

"Oh, um, sure. Also, I think this is yours."

It was a scroll, tightly bound but clearly very long. The writing on it was tiny.

"I'm not sure who it's from. It's addressed to you, and I found it on the way here."

He broke the seal and read the first paragraph. He frowned, then read it again.

 _What a sense of timing_ , Sasuke thought. It was the day before he might be returned to the Academy, due to his team's failings. He ought to be cramming in last-minute practice, and he had to be polite to Ino, but he also had another mystery fall into his lap.

-O-

The girl wasn't particularly short for her age, but she definitely wasn't tall either. _Frail_ , she was often called. She lacked the bulk that most of her classmates had built up. Unusually, because she tended to hate solitude, she was sat in her house, on her own, and eating dinner with a scowl on her face.

Sakura was almost never angry. Upset? Sometimes. Annoyed? Frequently, yes. But anger was a feeling she had no practice dealing with, and so now that she was definitely _very_ angry, she was also out of her comfort zone. One thing was certain, though – Kakashi would learn what it meant to get between her and her prize.

In the hours since he'd casually turned her day from great to awful, her fear and sadness had slowly given way to a deep rage at the _unfairness_ of it all. Sakura had been put in a group with Sasuke. It had all been _worth it_ ; she'd had the best day in years. And now, that was all gone. She had to defeat a master ninja, who'd been on countless missions, killed enemy ninja in combat, and to top it all off was taller and stronger than her. Looking at his public file hadn't let her find a secret weakness; it had just shown her how out of her depth she was.

Sakura ate mechanically, one hand shovelling food into her mouth while the other held the scroll she was reading. It was the one chance she had to pass. Despite what she'd told Ino, she was becoming more and more certain that there was something more at work than just the instructors passing out a few pointers to their favourite students. The advice had been _too_ accurate, _too_ useful. This was an ace, that much was definite, and Sakura was going to use and abuse her single advantage as much as she could.

She'd finished every exercise and memorised every piece of advice on the first few sections. The next exercise it described was tree walking, but that wouldn't tip the scales in her favour against someone as strong as Kakashi. Hell, it wouldn't even let her best a chunin. Frustrated, but refusing to be stymied that easily, she flicked forward through the scroll, stopping on a random page. There it was!

The food lay on her plate, forgotten. The scroll was clutched in a sweaty hand as she excitedly read onwards, thinking, planning, preparing. Practicing.

The comfortable home around her, with small ornaments and knitted tea cosies, suddenly jarred harshly with her thoughts.

One thing was for sure. If Sakura was going to fail, she'd make sure Kakashi had to _fucking_ work for it.

-O-

Naruto arrived just barely on time for the test. The clearing he was supposed to meet everyone in was in a rarely used training ground. _And no wonder, look how far away it is..._

Nevertheless, it was a peaceful place, with mixed forests and a stream crossing through on the near end. The thick carpet of leaves made it easy to sneak around and the undergrowth left plenty of hiding places, while the shifting shadows could provide cover to moving ninja as well.

Sasuke and Sakura were both already there, standing near each other on the grassy field, and neither looked happy. Sasuke turned his back and stuck his hands in his pockets, apparently fidgeting with something, while Sakura started angrily whispering about how if he were late, he might make her fail.

A paper aeroplane flew over their heads. Sasuke's hand reached out and skewered it with a kunai before quickly checking it for traps, while Naruto looked in the direction it had come from. Nothing was there, not that he could see at least, but any ninja could have thrown that from fifty metres away, or even further.

Sasuke had finally finished making sure the paper plane wouldn't explode and take his hand off and opened it. "Huh. Look at this, everyone."

Naruto peered at the writing on the inside of the folded paper.

 _Sasuke, say: 'Huh. Look at this, everyone' if you want to pass._

 _Now that I've got your attention, you should all read the next part._

 _The test is a test of teamwork. Kakashi will be late, so you have time to plan – he will try to trick you into turning on each other, so he can fail you. You_ must _pass, and you can do it if you work together and_ also _follow these instructions:_

 _Naruto – be late, later than Kakashi, and wear your goggles. You should go back to pick them up now, and then if you walk slowly you'll be back here at the right time._

 _Sasuke – put on some armour for the backs of your hands, and wear your swords crossed over your back. The handguards are near the dead tree north of you._

 _Sakura – wear your Konoha symbol on your forehead._

 _So that you know who this is from – I am the writer, Kunai, Illusions, Fire._

Naruto summed up their thoughts with a single word. "What?!"

"Can we trust this writer?" Sasuke asked. "It's the same person, or more likely people, that sent me a scroll with advice and information. I've only practised the fire techniques inside so far, which has gone well, but there's more in it that I haven't tried yet."

"I got some advice too. I've only read a bit, I did some of the stuff near the front but that's all," Naruto said. "But anyway, let's try doing this plan. If it's Kakashi trying to mess with us, we're screwed anyway."

"Maybe. I think we might even be able to take him if we set up some traps. Let's set up a plan, and follow the instructions except for Naruto. Having some extra armour on probably won't be the difference between success or failure, after all. And Sakura should be following the advice anyway – seriously, using your symbol of being a ninja as a _hairband_? But if Naruto shows up after the test has properly started, it might stop him from passing, and we don't know when Kakashi will show up."

 _Or maybe he's here already, and this is all mind games,_ Naruto wanted to add to Sasuke's little speech, but they all knew it and saying it out loud wouldn't help one way or another.

"Who made you the boss?" Naruto said instead. He obviously wanted to be in charge himself, but his second choice would be Sakura rather than Sasuke.

"Let's not argue now, this test is too important. We can discuss things like that later. Sasuke can be in charge for now, and if we don't pass it won't matter anyway." Sakura was the voice of reason, but it wasn't enough to calm the situation down. Naruto wasn't going to give in without a (verbal, he reminded himself firmly) fight.

"If we want to pass, surely we shouldn't let the quietest guy organise everything? Besides, he'll probably think he can do it on his own and just tell us to get out of the way."

Sasuke had also had massive mood swings in fights before, going from cool and professional to angry and wild in under a second and for no apparent reason. It might be useful to have a berserker on the team, but Naruto wasn't going to rely on his instructions. He also wasn't going to mention those mood swings, not when it seemed like he was already the outsider.

"You're just worried that if I do too well, Kakashi will only take me on as a student," Sasuke said, stung. Naruto hadn't been worried about that, or even thought about it. Until now. He opened his mouth, getting ready to say something to _really_ shut down that arrogant prick. To hell with diplomacy, this was war!

"Shut up!" Sakura shouting was strange enough that it shocked Naruto and Sasuke into silence. "Right. Neither of you is competent enough to lead, _clearly_ , if you can't even stop insulting each other for five minutes. _I_ will be in charge, and if we pass, we can have another discussion about who should be the team leader. Now, let's get a plan put together..."

-O-

Kakashi wandered into the clearing, wiping the last of the sleep from his eyes. Better ninja than he had been seriously injured or even killed in training accidents, and he didn't plan to die in such an embarrassing way.

The three genin were already there, glaring at him. Well, except for Sasuke, who was trying to hide his anger (unsuccessfully, but still, it's the thought that counts) and instead fidgeting with a comb in his pocket.

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's get started!" Kakashi pulled a pair of bells out of his pocket. "These are your goal. Whoever gets one, gets to pass. If you fail, you go back to the academy for another year. There's two, so one of you is guaranteed to go back."

The kids didn't seem as shocked as they should be, but then again they'd probably been on edge for several hours now. Mental fatigue was just as crippling as physical exhaustion, and it was all the better for him if they didn't put up much of a fight. He'd brought a book along in case they'd failed to show up, like one spectacularly bad potential team, or refused to fight him, like last year's team.

"This will be a true ninja battle. You can come at me with anything, including lethal attacks. There are no rules."

Instantly, Naruto ran at him, drawing a kunai with one hand and a fistful of shuriken with the other. Kakashi leant to one side and let the thrown weapons pass by. He waited until the last moment and dodged Naruto's wild swing, kicking his legs out from under him and pushing the genin to the floor with one hand.

He didn't expect either the smoke bomb concealed under Naruto's body, or for Naruto to bounce back up in a handspring and try to cave Kakashi's face in with his feet. He still easily stepped out of the way, but as he moved back and out of the smoke he realised that this had all been planned. A simple clone stepped out ahead of him and was dispersed by Sasuke's fist, and Kakashi grabbed his arm and threw him onto Naruto. In the smoke, they wouldn't recognise each other quickly and the fight between them would be another sign of their poor teamwork.

Sakura had gone to ground. It was a fact of ninja life that hiding was much easier than finding, and since he wasn't in any particular rush he'd deal with her last. He turned back to the slowly clearing smoke and saw...

Naruto had been kicked out of the cloud by Sasuke and landed next to a tree. A tree that, Kakashi saw with dawning horror, had a deadfall trap rigged in it. A large rock was about to fall on Naruto's head, and he was too dazed to move in time. Echoes of an earlier situation, which had been so similar in a lot of ways, seemed to paralyse Kakashi.

As the rock fell, Kakashi realised something wasn't right. At a glance, he took in the scene behind him – Naruto was there too! The person about to be crushed was a clone, so that he'd let his guard down. A smart plan for three fresh graduates, but it shouldn't have even come this close to working, unless... Kakashi suppressed his chakra to snap the genjutsu he now realised he was under.

Sakura hadn't just run, he realised. He saw a slight disturbance in the way the wind rustled the undergrowth and rushed over to where he knew she must be hiding. It wasn't a bad spot she'd picked, but he easily found her anyway and grabbed her by the back of the neck.

"Think it's funny, do you? Digging up someone's demons like that?" He barely held himself back from using some very nasty illusions of his own, but Kakashi felt that one little nightmare was justified. On some level, he realised that the aftereffects of the genjutsu were still in his system, but he didn't care. Two handseals was all it took to force Sakura to face her deepest fears for a few seconds.

Kakashi blocked the knife before Sakura could plunge it into his stomach. So, she was one of those who became _vicious_ when they were cornered. That, he could respect.

From behind him, he felt Sasuke and Naruto running in. Sasuke drew a sword from over his shoulder, looking the very image of a younger Kakashi, while Naruto's determination to help and relative lack of skills to back it up called up memories of another rescue attempt he'd once seen. His anger faded and he stood there, watching the team – they were definitely a team now – as they closed on him. Kakashi could see in their eyes that they no longer expected to pass, that their one best shot had already failed, but that they were willing to fight anyway.

He obliged them.

When the bell rang, none of the three had even managed to _touch_ the bells on his waist, but it didn't matter. Kakashi saw it in the way they glared at him, and the unity in their stances and their mutters; this was a team he could teach.

-O-

Naruto was gesturing to Iruka, one hand holding a pair of chopsticks, as they sat in the ramen booth. Behind him, a row of paper sheets kept out the sights, but not sounds, of the lane. "And then he said that we could all pass! It was a trick all along, and he was just making sure we were good at being on a team together. The bells didn't even matter."

His smile was infectious, and soon the Chunin was grinning too. "Ah, let me tell you about my own first genin test. I was on a team with a really weak guy who was good at ninjutsu but couldn't even do five pushups, and a girl who used a spiked chain whip thing, but had put her own eye out while practising. We had to find and rescue a lost kitten, and our instructor told us if we didn't find it he'd leave it to die." Naruto was hanging on his every word, and it felt good.

"That turned out to be a lie, luckily, because we all failed and I had to retake the test the year after! None of us realised that it was an information-gathering test, and we were supposed to track it down or try to trick the jonin into telling us something. Instead, we just combed the woods, and we couldn't cover more than a quarter in the time we had – and even that wasn't that thoroughly.

"Luckily I had a different team the next year, and we passed quite easily. One of them's a jonin now, and the other is retired from active duty and does paperwork all day in the Hokage tower. We still meet up regularly, and stay in touch with our instructor – of course, he has a new team now. Anyway, you're ahead of where I was at your age, already. At this rate I should be watching my back, right?"

"Yeah, you better believe I'm gonna catch you up super fast. I'm going to be the youngest Hokage, even younger than the Fourth, and everyone will respect me!" It was nothing that Naruto hadn't said a million times before, but here, and now, Iruka almost believed it himself.

The two ate and talked long into the night, while overhead, the moon looked down.

-O-

A/N: The next update will be around two weeks from now, and I won't be able to reply to any reviews until then, as I will be on holiday. Nevertheless, feedback is welcome and I will respond when I can.


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright, team. That's the last D-rank you'll ever have to do," Kakashi said. It had been a month since he'd passed the three genin in front of him, and while they hadn't changed all that much, he was happy enough with their progress. They looked incredibly bored in the hospital's featureless white corridors, but at the thought of new missions, all three were excited. Naturally, Naruto was the only one who showed it.

As they turned to walk towards the Hokage tower and sign off on their delivering of fresh food to the hospital, Kakashi carefully considered each of his charges.

Sasuke was starting to care more about his team. For whatever reason, he'd stopped seeing them as just a burden (although, Kakashi considered, there was still a little of that attitude left) and no longer chafed at the bit like a racing horse that wants to slip the harness and run. He'd mostly been practising with his two swords. He didn't have a great deal of natural talent with them, but he seemed to enjoy using them anyway.

Sakura's self-consciousness was starting to become a problem. She always tried to avoid becoming a sweaty mess, or covered in dirt, at the cost of her training. When she was angry she was incredibly competent, but she was so rarely angry that it didn't help her much. On the other hand, she was very diligent when it came to independent training. He'd observed her once or twice and she spent hours practising genjutsu at home, trying to catch her parents as well the local wildlife. Hopefully, she'd learn to take her physical training as seriously – often the first mission with combat in it straightened out new genins' priorities, according to some of the other jonin he'd talked to.

Naruto was enthusiastic but cared about too many things at once. He'd start something, put it on hold for a second while he did something else, and repeat the process until he was a quarter of the way through fifteen different training exercises. Kakashi wasn't looking forward to teaching him ninjutsu, but according to the boy's former instructor, Iruka, Naruto had improved a lot already. Maybe there was hope for the future – after all, Naruto had somehow managed to learn the Shadow Clone technique in a single night. He'd slowed down a bit since then, but was getting rather handy with throwing weapons. Using his clones, he could hit a hundred targets in just under three seconds. The potential there for mass destruction was quite nice, although Kakashi supposed it was nothing compared to the Kage or Sannin.

And he'd changed a bit himself, Kakashi reflected. Not physically – he wasn't going to start climbing mountains one-handed, or any of the other crazy physical stunts he'd used to pull – but emotionally; he tended to be less melancholy when drunk, and pickier when the bars closed and he was about to go home.

The chunin at the mission desk were kind enough to reserve the delivery mission he wanted. It was a routine transport. Team 7 would be taking a load of weapons and rations outwards to an outpost, and a prisoner escort back, which Kakashi hoped would be uneventful enough to calm Sakura down while giving him opportunities to train all three. He'd also be able to show Naruto a little of the world outside Konoha. And he could read while he walked.

He made sure to tell Naruto twice about the gear he would need, since he'd be sure to forget otherwise, and then wrote it down for him anyway. Sakura, on the other hand, needed to be reminded of what _not_ to bring, since she had a habit of over-planning. Sasuke was organised enough to bring only what he could comfortably carry. After being corrected the first time he'd been so embarrassed that he'd not made a mistake since.

-O-

On the way home, Naruto took a side trip to tell Iruka about his mission, but couldn't find him at the Academy. After spending half an hour trying to track him down, one of Iruka's neighbours told him that the chunin was out on a mission and wouldn't be back for the next few days, but promised to pass on a message. While not exactly what Naruto had hoped for, it was still better than nothing.

"Hello."

Naruto jumped. He hadn't realised anyone was approaching him at all, and Shino was creepy enough that he was a bit worried by him suddenly appearing. The rooftop he was standing on wasn't on any major route through the city, and far enough in the mostly-civilian section that ninja who didn't live there (which meant almost all of them, except Naruto) had no real reason for being there so late anyway.

"Hi Shino! What are you doing here?"

"I saw you and wanted to talk for a bit." That didn't answer his real question, but Naruto figured there was no point trying to press Shino on it. Besides, that was more words in a row than Naruto could remember hearing from him. Ever. Naruto would have to carry the conversation, most likely, but getting any input at all from Shino would be interesting.

"Ok, let's talk. Oh! You see that house down there?" Naruto pointed to a particularly large two-story building, with white plastered walls and red shingles on the roof. "I put some frogspawn in the water tank a few years ago. And four doors down and across the street, I plugged up the drainpipe with her rubbish, because she wasn't recycling properly. And there was another house that's been torn down now, where I painted a giant turd on the roof and they never even knew. And one time I shaved that guy's dog and dyed his name on its' side, because he let it crap all over the streets. Hey, that gives me an idea – "

"Informative as this is, that's not what I wanted to talk about. How are you adjusting to ninja life?" Shino asked.

"It's not bad, but the training is quite boring. I know it's supposed to make me strong, but surely there's a better way? Like, more interesting. And I've not done any proper missions yet, but our first one is tomorrow. But Kakashi said it would be quite boring and straightforward."

"I've found a shortcut for quickly gaining strength. You should try it too, at some point." Shino showed Naruto a small pottery jar with a wide cork stopper in the top. There was a bright red hazard sign on the side. "I have to be very careful with it. It's completely safe as long as you don't have any cuts on you, but if it gets in a wound it's lethal. I don't have an antidote yet. However, it's very useful for trapping foes. A simple caltrop can kill if it's coated in this, and I can produce a large amount using an insect colony I possess. You should attempt to secure your own supply of something, as you possess a talent for stealth, subterfuge and trapping."

The poison vanished back into Shino's coat. Naruto was speechless. He'd known that he might have to kill at some point, but to plan out deliberate traps like that was cold-blooded murder.

"What if someone you don't want to kill walks into a trap? Like, some farmer or merchant or something? You said you don't have an antidote."

Shino was silent for a moment. "I am careful to only place traps where there is a low chance of collateral damage, and remove them afterwards."

" _Low chance!?_ You'd risk killing off a bunch of innocent bystanders just so you can play around with poisons, or what?" Naruto was furious. He'd once been suspected of poisoning a merchant in the village, as the man's death had happened a few hours after Naruto had been seen sneaking chilli powder into his tea. When the real culprit had been found, it had turned out to be an assassination attempt that had hit the wrong target.

Shino stood up. "You may come and apologise to me after you have enough experience to understand what you just said." His voice was frosty and he turned to leave. "One last thing. Be very careful on your first proper mission. The first C-rank mission for new genin is the career step with the single highest casualty rate. Don't be overconfident."

Naruto watched him leave, still angry but also slightly impressed that Shino had done so much homework. He leapt off the building, taking to the streets for the last stretch on his way home. He'd had enough stress for one day. And Shino would have to apologise to _him_ first.

-O-

As Sakura headed off to join her team, ready for the day's mission, she saw Hinata on the other side of the street. The shy girl was slowly going the same way and dithering on every corner, so Sakura went over to walk with her. She had enough time, and it looked like Hinata had also passed her second test, if her shiny Konoha headband was any indication. The village put a high priority on close bonds within teams, but really, Sakura was a bit lonely sometimes, with only two teenage boys and an unreliable older man for company most days. A little inter-team bonding sounded pretty good, especially since she hadn't seen Ino in almost a week.

"Hey Hinata, what a surprise to see you here!" called Sakura. "I'm about to head off on a mission, but if you walk with me we can chat for a bit."

"Sure." Hinata's voice was steady but quiet enough that Sakura had to strain to hear her.

"So what have you been up to lately?"

"I've been training with my team."

Sakura soon realised that talking to Hinata about _anything_ was an uphill struggle at best.

"That sounds good. We've been doing a load of physical exercises, and it's a real pain. What sorts of things have you been doing?"

"Chakra exercises mostly, and tracking practice. And a little bit of physical training."

"Chakra exercises? I've done some of those too. If you show me which ones you've done, we can swap tips."

Hinata looked around and grabbed a leaf from a nearby bush. "You take the leaf, and you stick both hands to it, and then _pull_." Hinata demonstrated it. The leaf was glued firmly to her right hand and her left was empty. "If you do it right, you rip the leaf because your chakra grip is stronger than the leaf is."

"Oh, I haven't seen that one before. My favourite at the moment is one you do with your eyes. You have to cast out a sort of thin string, and stick it to something, then try to move the string's end. Apparently, it's the first step to doing genjutsu just by eye contact. It's quite hard, but really worthwhile if I can get it to work."

Sakura realised that she hadn't ended her last sentence with a question, and so Hinata wasn't going to talk. "So we're about to reach my team. It's Sasuke and Naruto, and our jonin is Kakashi. You have… Kurenai, right?"

"Yes. I wish I were with Naruto, though." Hinata's voice was stronger than it had been at any other point in the conversation so far.

"Why, though? He's not that skilled, and he's clumsy and unfocused. I like the guy, but he's not that great a ninja. And Sasuke is better eye candy, anyway," Sakura whispered conspiratorially.

"Naruto's not that skilled yet, but he will be. He never gives up and he won't ever stop unless he reaches his goal. And", Hinata looked around to make sure no-one could overhear, then leant in, "have you seen Naruto shirtless before?" Sakura shook her head. "You're missing out big time. Just keep an eye open, you'll see what I mean."

There was no chance for a rebuttal because they'd turned the last corner on the way to the gates and could see Sasuke already waiting. Naruto would probably cut it very close, and Kakashi would be a bit late, but Sakura had only been the first person at a team meeting once, and that was when – she remembered with a slight flush of shame – she'd gotten the time wrong by a full hour.

The two girls walked over, and Sasuke and Sakura discussed the mission details they'd been given, while Hinata stood around quietly and watched for Naruto. He came barreling into the square thirty seconds before their planned departure time, followed almost immediately by Kakashi, who scooped his team up and manoeuvred them out the gate and onto the road so quickly that it left their heads spinning.

One last shout of "Bye Hinata!" from Naruto, who'd apparently never heard of social decorum, and they were off on their first real ninja mission, walking as a squad of four down the paved path leading to the north, trees towering over them and surrounding them in a leafy embrace. Shadows shifted in the undergrowth and the branches around and overhead restricted their view to the narrow and winding road.

Sakura suddenly felt incredibly exposed and vulnerable.

-O-

It was noon. As Team 7 rested by a stream, Sasuke watched them. Each of them had got on his nerves in a different way during the morning's travel.

Sakura had decided to practice her genjutsu. That alone wasn't so annoying, but the fact that she was focusing on her appearance, rather than something useful, made him want to say something sarcastic and biting. 'Why don't you spend time learning to _be_ useful instead of trying to _look_ it?' would be good. Her hair had gone through every colour of the rainbow, and now she was working on her nails.

Worse than that, she'd been trying to mess with him and Naruto. The third time he'd caught himself tracing her delicate earlobe to the shining and (at the time) blond tresses that flowed down her back like a waterfall, offset by her perfect green eyes, he'd realised that he didn't usually think in poetry and someone was fucking with his head.

His answering illusion had put phantom insects on her back that he only moved when she tried to talk or cast genjutsu. Petty, sure, but it put him in a much better mood for around two minutes before she broke it. It hadn't worked the second time he'd tried it.

Naruto was incapable of being quiet. He was clearly almost as bored as Sasuke, but rather than gritting his teeth and bearing it, he started talking about whatever was going through his head. Sasuke had learned more (probably incorrect) information about Konoha, ninja life, the Hokage, Naruto himself, and ramen in one morning than in a whole month at the Academy. He'd also tried to juggle a pair of Kunai. The constant sound of him dropping them, stopping to pick them up, and scrambling to catch up was irritating enough on its own, but he'd also cut himself twice. After the second time, he'd put them away, at least.

Kakashi, despite theoretically being the most experienced and strongest ninja there, was the worst of the lot. He read as he walked, showing no awareness whatsoever, and Sasuke had to constantly look for threats and ambushes. If Kakashi seemed even slightly more organised, Sasuke wouldn't need to be so paranoid and might be able to focus on some sort of training or practice. He couldn't even do any chakra exercises without risking a knife to the back of the head from a hidden attacker.

"Break's over! Let's get back on the road. We're only an hour or so away from the outpost now," said Kakashi. Sasuke leapt to his feet. He was eager to finish the mission and go back to training, or get more serious tasks – preferably with combat in them. Right now it seemed he was standing still while his peers caught up and his target got further and further away.

"Kakashi, what does pleasures of the flesh mean?" Naruto asked. He'd just gotten a glimpse of the back of Kakashi's book.

"It's how you prepare fruits that are very rich and juicy, like peaches. Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'peach flesh'?"

"Does that include plums?"

Kakashi nodded with a serious expression. "Most soft fruits, I suppose, as well as some vegetables. Tomatoes come to mind. Think of anything that splats nicely when you drop it."

Sasuke tried his best to ignore them. He didn't care whether Kakashi read cooking books or not.

The woods soon sped by, a blur of green and brown. This early in the year there were no fallen leaves covering the ground, and so Sasuke could run as fast as he wanted without risking slipping. The point of the outpost they were resupplying was to patrol this stretch of the border, after all, and there was no need to be cautious in case of ambush. Team Seven arrived in a spray of dirt, having raced the last stretch. Kakashi loped in at the same pace he'd had the whole day, uncaring about being in last place, while Sakura and Naruto bickered about who'd come second and who'd come third. Sasuke ignored them, secure in his position as the fastest genin.

The three wood and stone huts in front of them didn't look like much. Sasuke recognised the temporary jail by the iron bars over the windows and the thick pillars of chakra-compressed stone that couldn't be destroyed without ninjutsu or explosives. The barracks, he guessed, could hold up to twenty people, but it would be easy to put together space for several hundred, judging by the size of the clearing and the amount of seasoned lumber stacked nearby. It was on the side of a hill, but the slope was so shallow that it didn't offer much protection from attack.

The watchtower was built over the last hut, which probably held supplies and weapons – although Sasuke supposed right now it wouldn't be holding much of anything; that was why they were resupplying it, after all. It was almost as sturdy as the prison but smaller. The tower was made of bare logs. They were stripped of bark, and then simply bound together to make the frame of a building. A small wooden platform on top, higher than the treetops below, would watch over the road and the forests for miles around. Two ninja with Leaf headbands were watching them – no, that wasn't right. One was watching them, and the other was looking for a potential ambush they might be trying to distract from.

"Konoha ninja bearing supplies!" Kakashi called out. "I'm supposed to hand them over to Rabbit."

"That's me." Rabbit came out of the barracks room. He was a small man wearing a rabbit mask, unsurprisingly, but if he was a member of ANBU, which seemed certain judging by the codename, he'd be _very_ dangerous. Sasuke turned his thoughts to something else – they weren't here to fight over the outpost, after all.

The conversation between Kakashi and Rabbit was quite dull, so he looked more closely at the edges of the clearing. He spotted a few of the more poorly hidden traps. There were a lot of sharpened stakes and tripwires, but the really dangerous stuff, like exploding seals, would be buried in hard-to-find places and nearly impossible for him to see.

"Alright, team," Kakashi said. "We're going to rest here overnight, and head back tomorrow. There are five prisoners we'll be taking back to Konoha to stand trial."

Sasuke wasn't surprised at the extra delay, but that didn't make it less irritating.

-O-

On the way back, Kakashi went out of his way to look alert and vigilant. It was fine to appear unprofessional in front of his genin, but the prisoners were dangerous. All five were facing execution if they were found guilty, and as far as he could tell it was a fairly cut-and-dried case of banditry.

They looked the part, as well. Covered in scars, with lank and greasy hair falling in long curtains over their faces, it was all too easy to imagine them clutching swords and bows and threatening travellers or demanding money.

He'd made sure Naruto and Sakura understood the dangers. Explaining the reasons behind why Konoha had to try them if they were definitely guilty took a while, but after Kakashi explained that unless they'd been threatened directly (or paid, if it was for a mission) Konoha ninja shouldn't kill in cold blood he thought it had taken hold. Sasuke was paranoid enough, Kakashi knew from the outward journey. However, the other two were still children in a lot of ways, and they didn't understand how easy it was to be hurt or killed if you let your guard down.

The trip home took longer than the outward trip. The prisoners walked slowly, sullenly. Despite otherwise wearing little more than rags, they all had solid leather shoes, which was a small blessing. Kakashi supposed that the outpost had supplied them, much like the manacles they were bound by. The two women in particular seemed to struggle under the weight of all that metal, but Kakashi knew that it didn't weigh anywhere near enough for that. He let the charade go on. It would keep them busy.

Having to set up camp for the night was new for his genin, but he easily kept them focused by mentioning the crimes the prisoners were accused of. He'd hoped to have a bit of a lesson on camp craft and hunting, but it would have to wait until they weren't also in charge of a prisoner transport.

There were enough dry rations remaining for nine people if they reached Konoha in two days, which would be easily done at their current speed. Kakashi could hunt or gather if necessary, but if it was optional he'd rather keep a closer eye on his team, which meant always being at the very back of the convoy or the highest point in the overnight camp.

He tied the manacles to each other and a thick tree trunk, and then set up a watch schedule. The night went by without incident and he started to relax – breakfast was straightforward and by midmorning, Konoha was only an hour away. Sasuke had drifted off to the side to 'scout'; now that they were in patrolled territory, he probably felt safe enough to go and explore. Naruto had held out ten minutes before his boredom overwhelmed his desire to not copy Sasuke.

Sakura was leading the small convoy when she spotted the corner of a shuriken that had broken off and was now sticking out of the surface of the road. It was probably, Kakashi guessed, from a training exercise or careless ninja in a hurry. She stopped and knelt down to get a better look while Kakashi kept everyone moving.

The last prisoner, right in front of him, stumbled and landed heavily on her chains. Her moans of pain distracted Kakashi for a split second and drew Sakura's attention.

As the leader, a whip-thin man with a ruined eye and burns on both hands, walked by, he took two swift steps to the side and struck at her. While stepping in, he'd drawn a sharp splinter of rock from under his coat. Kakashi moved to intercept him but the captured bandits tried to block him. He walked through them, casually killing as he did. As he reached Sakura he sliced open the man attacking her before turning and cutting down the last prisoner.

More puzzled than shocked, Kakashi wondered what the point of it had been. There was no chance of any of the prisoners succeeding, no way they had outside help this close to Konoha, and even if they had managed to kill Sakura they would just have died more painfully. He looked down at her, still crouched in the road.

She was bleeding from the side of her head. Half her ear was missing, and there was blood slowly trickling along her face and hair. One of her eyes was gummed shut and she sobbed in a rather pathetic way.

Kakashi knelt down beside her. "It's safe. Don't worry, they're all dead. We're almost in Konoha and we can get that ear repaired easily enough." As he tried to calm her down, he carefully bandaged up her wound. "There's no-one left to hurt you, and if you walk next to me you'll be in no danger at all." His voice was soft. He had a lot of practice when it came to battlefield first aid, and a calm voice helped a lot if the subject was in shock. Kakashi took a moment to appreciate the detachment he felt.

At that moment, Naruto and Sasuke both scrambled out of the undergrowth, out of breath. They stopped, shocked at the dead bodies and blood splatters.

Naruto, predictably, started talking. "What happened? Sakura, are you OK? Are you- are you bleeding?" He walked over and tried to hug her. Kakashi was quick enough to catch her reflexive stab, and when Naruto put his arms around her she clung to him like a flea clings to a dog.

Meanwhile, Sasuke stared at the corpses that were scattered on the forest floor amongst the dead leaves. His eyes were wide enough that Kakashi could see the whites all the way around, and he was hyperventilating. He reached for a kunai with fingers that were trembling too hard to grip it properly, then gave up and sat down with his back against a tree.

 _Of course, this had to happen too,_ Kakashi thought to himself.

-O-

A/N: The next update will be in one week's time. Also, as a heads-up – pairings are going to be fluid, and while some will stay constant throughout the story, others won't.


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura would be making a full recovery. It was the first thing the nurse had told her, even before mentioning the lack of infection or that her ear would be regrown. It was about as comforting as the cool green walls and crisp white sheets of her hospital room – _sterile_ , that was the word she was looking for.

 _It could have been worse._

She'd heard it from half a dozen different people so far. Her parents were happy she was (relatively) fine after her first real mission. Her team-mates were glad she would be ready for action again soon. Kakashi was probably the only one who knew how close to death she'd been, and had seemed appropriately relieved afterwards; on the other hand, nobody except Kakashi himself knew how much of what he said and did was an act.

A cut to the throat instead of the head would mean her bleeding out before reaching Konoha's walls. A stab in an eye socket was another almost guaranteed kill. If the prisoner had been through a single year of the Konoha Academy curriculum, Sakura wouldn't have come home at all, rather than as a nervous wreck with her first real injury.

The short not-really-a-fight kept replaying in her head.

She simply hadn't been good enough. Hell, she hadn't known she was _really_ in danger until it was too late. If she wasn't safe as a fully qualified genin against a man who'd repeatedly burned himself trying to eat soup the night before he attacked her, and was wearing manacles, then how could she ever be safe when her missions inevitably pitted her against other ninja?

Sakura reached up to touch the bandages around her right ear. It was scheduled to be regrown later that day. The ear would be submerged in nutrient slop, and then medical jutsu would be used to create new flesh and knit it into a good-as-new piece of her. She wrote a short note apologising for leaving so quickly, because some parts of her personality couldn't be changed and then climbed out of the window because other parts could.

She couldn't find Sasuke, her first choice for a training partner. He might have disappeared into one of his old haunts, as despite _hours_ of searching she'd never caught him training outside of class even once. He might also have just been sleeping in after a stressful first mission.

Kakashi was even worse – on days with no team training, he seemed to simply evaporate. Naruto claimed that he drank and slept around a bunch, but surely a proper ninja would be more, well, _dignified_ than that? Sasuke had deliberately not-laughed at her when she'd said that.

That left her with two options – the childhood friend who was seemingly never around when you needed her, or the team-mate who was always there no matter how annoying he got and how much you wished he'd leave.

Making up her mind, Sakura set off towards the training ground Ino's team usually met in. Halfway there she stopped when she spotted an orange figure slowly carrying a boulder the size of a toddler across a field.

-O-

Naruto was working hard when Sakura found him. He wiped the sweat out of his eyes with his orange top, and then turned away from the boulder he'd been moving, leaving the soaked jumper on top of it. Next time he'd wear just shorts and a t-shirt for something like this, he decided.

Sakura was still slightly pale from blood loss, and her bandages hadn't come off yet. She was wearing the same clothes as usual, including her headband, which securely fastened on her forehead. She looked a much sorrier sight than she normally did for team meetings or training of any sort. And yet, Naruto couldn't help but notice that she was much colder, harder and more focused than she'd ever been, even from twenty feet away.

"I need to be better. Can you help me?" The words didn't sound like Sakura. The voice was right, but the tone was too business-like.

Naruto was all too willing to train with her. He'd dreamed of some private time with Sakura for years and wasn't about to turn it down now. On the other hand, he didn't know what she was after and how he could help. The last thing he wanted was to embarrass himself in front of her. But then again, it was as his training schedule said in big orange letters at the top: _Nothing ventured, nothing gained..._

"Sure, Sakura. What do you want me to do?"

"Try to catch me before I get you." Sakura focused, wove a set of handseals, and suddenly Naruto's attention was caught by the branch of a tree to her left. It was sturdy, three times his height and with a gnarled trunk. Its leaves swayed in the wind, turning over and revealing their silvery undersides. The tree as a whole moved slightly, scattering small shadows over the ground.

Naruto was unable to look away. On some level he knew he needed to stop Sakura from advancing towards him, but... the tree distracted him again. Now that he knew what was happening to him, he could feel the distortions around Sakura that pushed his attention away whenever he tried to look at her. He swirled his chakra, trying to break the illusion, but it settled back onto him every time he thought it was gone.

Sakura had closed most of the gap between them. She was watching him intently, green eyes wide and staring, while her hands formed a seal. _The eyes!_ Naruto focused on her feet and found it much easier to ignore the seductively shifting branch. However, he still wasn't able to move – away, towards her, nothing worked.

As Sakura stepped almost into range, she drew a kunai. The glint of it made Naruto tense involuntarily, and he felt his eyes slide up towards her face. Before he could be snared again, he tried one last trick.

Naruto closed his eyes. Walking forward and reaching out to both sides of where he knew Sakura must be, he swept his hands inward, grabbed and pulled. He scooped Sakura into his arms and as soon as he interrupted her hands, the illusion broke.

He was standing almost on top of her. Some of her hair was sticking up and tickling his nose, and he could feel her breath whispering over his neck and chest. Her hand was on his stomach, feeling the slight muscle there – and how he wished he'd been more consistent with his sit-up regimen! He was breathing harder than usual, his teenage hormones taking hold. And if he'd noticed that, she would definitely have noticed it too.

Their basically-a-hug had already lasted several seconds, and Sakura hadn't moved away yet. She turned her face up to him, and Naruto noticed – surprised – that he was a full foot taller than her. She was so big in his mind, he'd forgotten how small, how _fragile_ she looked. Her eyes were so very green, and as her lips parted slowly, she licked them nervously…

Then she shook off whatever mood had taken hold of her. "Let's try that again."

"Sure." Naruto cursed himself for not kissing her when he had the chance. After all, what were the odds that he'd ever get a better moment than that?

-O-

When Iruka got back from a routine guard mission, the last thing he expected was his next-door neighbour dropping by to complain about a visit from Naruto. After calming the man down and putting his gear away, he immediately set off to find out why Naruto had come to visit him.

Naruto was distinctive enough that Iruka picked his orange top out of the crowd of shoppers thronging Konoha's streets and markets. It was more luck than anything that while crossing Konoha's rooftops, he'd spotted him wandering around and peering through the windows at the displays inside, as Naruto was quite far from his usual haunts.

"Hey, Naruto. I heard you were looking for me?" Iruka said. It was gratifying to see that he could still sneak up on Naruto, and even more fun to watch him jump.

"Hi! Yeah, I wanted to tell you about my first real ninja mission!" Naruto had a look that Iruka had learned meant he was after something. "I'd love to tell you all about it, if we had some time and space to ourselves..."

"How about we go get some ramen again, then?" Iruka smiled as Naruto beamed. _If only everyone was so easily pleased, the world would be a better place._

As the pair walked towards the ramen stand Iruka had visited with Naruto before, he started to listen to everything that had happened since he'd left – Naruto's discussion with Shino, the boring as hell mission, the sudden danger (although it was unclear what had happened exactly, what with Naruto not being there), and Sakura's new temperament. That last one caused Iruka to stop walking.

"Are you sure? She doesn't want to have her ear fixed?"

"We were talking after training, and she said she wasn't supposed to be outside of the hospital yet. But she showed me and it's not that bad." Naruto pulled a face. "All right – _she_ thought it was fine. _I_ thought it looked weird and gross. But she doesn't want the doctors to repair it."

"I need to talk to her." When Naruto looked like he was about to disagree, Iruka tried to look even sterner than he already did. "Don't forget, I taught her as well as you. And she's not the only one with scars she doesn't want to have healed. It's probably not necessary but I want to make sure."

Naruto looked puzzled so Iruka pointed to the scar that stretched from one cheek to the other, cutting a notch into his nose in the process. "Where is she, do you know?"

"She went home after we trained together. Do you think she might need help?"

"I'm not sure. I'm going to have to put the ramen on hold for now, but we can get some later. Meet me there in two hours or so, I don't know how long this will take. And it's better if Sakura and I have a private talk."

Iruka remembered roughly where Sakura's parents lived and set off to talk to her. He focused on what she might have gone through to avoid remembering his own scarring experience. It was easier to keep it at arms' length; joke, deflect and project; avoid the turmoil and pain that remembering brought with it.

It was easy to get to the house. Taking to the rooftops was second nature by now, and with a few jumps and sprints, Iruka landed in front of Sakura's house. All the lights were off but he could hear faint sounds from inside.

He rang the doorbell and the sounds stopped. Barely detectable footsteps told him a lot about how paranoid Sakura was – she didn't feel safe even in her own home. She opened the door and he struggled not to gasp. He could barely recognise his ex-student. Here was a scared, scarred young woman instead of a happy and optimistic girl.

Even her clothes had changed. Her red dress was replaced with a loose brown-grey robe that, and her hair was hidden by a bandanna. Overall she looked like she was trying to hide herself. The one thing that drew attention was the bright red patch of shining skin at the top of what remained of her right ear.

"Hello Sakura. I heard from Naruto what happened, and I wanted to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk about it." Sakura tried to shut the door in his face, but Iruka blocked it with his foot.

"You don't have to talk, just listen to me." After Sakura didn't say anything for a few seconds, he swung the door back open and started.

"You're not the only person to keep a scar that could have been healed. Nowadays they can fix anything except eyes and some internal organs, and they can often transplant those too, but there's plenty of people who want a reminder of a particular wound. Look at me." Sakura had been mostly staring at his feet so far, but she flicked her gaze up to his eyes for a moment – and caught on his scar, understanding spreading across her face.

"I almost drowned in my own blood. I don't like talking about it, but it's important that I don't forget about it, because that way I can make sure _it never happens again_. More than that, because I _know_ I won't forget – or rather _can't_ forget – I can relax and put it aside. It doesn't have to be at the forefront of my mind all the time, because I know that next time I look in a mirror I'll see the scar.

"That's why I kept it. That's why several of the other teachers have small scars, and some of the active ninja have larger ones. You've seen the jonin with half his face burnt off, right? He was working on a fire technique when he almost killed himself. For him, it's about not being reckless. For me, it's about not being complacent. Whatever your big lesson was, and however you want to remember it, just know this: you can put it aside for a moment, because you'll never lose it.

"Come here." Iruka wasn't sure when he'd started crying, or when Sakura had joined him, but they were both sobbing and hugging each other, drawn together by the shared loss of something undefinable.

-O-

When Team 7 met up for training the next day, there was one person missing. Kakashi had hoped that Sasuke would manage his problems on his own, as there wasn't really any advice he had other than 'get drunk and sleep around for a few years'. Regardless of how free a hand he technically had when it came to his team, saying that to impressionable young genin was the sort of thing that got you into rather a lot of trouble. Now, however, he was faced with the unpleasant prospect of having to drag Sasuke to a therapist of some sort.

But first, "Naruto! Pick up the pace. You're supposed to be running, not going for a walk in the park!" Truth be told, Kakashi was impressed by how much Naruto had improved _again_. Before the mission, he'd been much slower. It just went to show that sometimes this teaching thing could be quite easy. Naruto just needed to be pushed as hard as possible, and he'd keep up or die trying. Sakura, on the other hand...

"You can't just hide there forever, you know." She was in the bloody forest again. "Come and run some more laps. And I mean _run_ , not jog half-heartedly and quit when you get tired. It's important to have proper conditioning if you want to be a strong ninja."

Sakura walked out, still in that strange camouflage outfit. Kakashi didn't see the point in it – any time she wanted to change her appearance, she could just use a transformation technique, so it didn't really make a difference when it came to hiding – but maybe it was psychological. He had no idea of what was normal for teenage girls, specifically teenage girls who'd recently been traumatised, so the best thing to do was to try to make her a competent ninja and hope she sorted that emotional stuff out on her own.

As she jogged after Naruto, who was racing around the grassy field and generally acting like an oversized puppy, he called after them. "I'm going to look for Sasuke. I think he might have gotten lost, or had to take a detour to avoid a black cat or something. Don't slack off, I'll know if you do!" Kakashi left a shadow clone behind to report back to him and dashed away.

He found Sasuke at home with a girl, and had to resist the urge to wait for an embarrassing moment to burst in. One of Asuma's or Kurenai's lot, he thought – definitely a new genin. She wasn't bad-looking for her age and Kakashi was torn between wanting to congratulate Sasuke and maybe get him some booze, and dreading the inevitable when Sakura found out.

And then he realised that Sasuke had invited the attractive young girl (the same age as him, no less) into his house just to train with her. He was using a single, longer sword instead of the two shorter blades he'd started with and she was guiding him through a rudimentary series of downward cuts and lunges. _Probably for the best overall, but_ damn. _Is he batting for the other team, or why isn't he making a move on her?...I need to stop reading so much smut if this is all I can think about._

"Oi, Sasuke. You missed a team training session today." Kakashi was pleased with the way both of the genin jumped at that. He'd timed his dropping down from the ceiling when they were both looking the other way, and hadn't made a sound when he landed. "Make sure it doesn't become a habit. Tomorrow we meet at dawn, so be there on time. We might be going on another mission."

And there it was. The slight tensing of the shoulders, the widening of the eyes. _Maybe if Sasuke used his bed for something other than sleeping he'd get this crap out of his system. Otherwise, he'll be a liability the next time there's any blood or corpses, and for a ninja that's a recipe for early retirement._

"Anyway, see you tomorrow. You two have a nice session together. And Sasuke, a longer sword doesn't help if you don't know how to use it." Kakashi smirked and waggled his eyebrows as he left. Sasuke was blushing heavily, while his blond companion didn't seem to notice the double entendre.

When he got back to his other two genin, Sakura had buggered off to do more genjutsu things in the trees. She'd stopped quietly not putting much effort in and was openly defying him now, but he didn't know how to call her on it while she was still so emotionally fragile. Naruto was playing some sort of keep-away with clones of himself and a small leather ball, and although he quickly pretended to have been hard at work with target practice when Kakashi showed himself, the memories of the shadow clone he'd left behind painted a very different picture.

"Naruto, do you remember what I told you?"

"You were going to look for Sasuke?"

"And after that?"

"You'd know if we didn't work hard?"

"Exactly."

"But I did! I ran around a load, and then I thought, 'Wouldn't it be better to practice changing direction at the same time' – you know, like in a real fight – and then I thought I could use my clones for that, but then I needed a target to run towards, and then things got out of hand a bit but it was training, honest!" Naruto looked rather a lot like a golden retriever who'd unexpectedly found out that all future ball-throwings had been put on indefinite hold.

Kakashi tended to think in dog metaphors anyway, but with Naruto, it was particularly common. Something about how warm and open he was, combined with his endless energy and enthusiasm (and his lack of sense, Kakashi had to admit to himself) just seemed very canine.

"And now you get to do even more training! Isn't life great?" Kakashi motioned for Naruto to copy him, then dropped to the floor, ready to do some abdominal curls. "Try to keep up with me. You'll definitely have to surpass me if you want to get anywhere near to the Hokage's level, after all."

It was a cheap trick but it worked. As Kakashi almost effortlessly performed sit-up after sit-up, Naruto sweated and grunted and did his best to not fall behind. It was honestly impressive that he kept going for as long as he did, but eventually he collapsed backwards and stayed there. Sweat was glistening on his face.

"I'll get you one day, and then I'll make you do sit-ups until you puke. While I do twice as many with no problems and laugh at you!" It was impossible to keep Uzumaki Naruto down.

Kakashi chuckled as he flicked a blade of grass into Naruto's open mouth. "Well, you'll have plenty of spare time in the next week. We've got another mission lined up! And Sakura," he raised his voice, "you'll need to wear something suitable for civilians."

As she walked over out of the forest, he noticed that she was still weaving illusions around herself. Naruto hadn't seemed to notice her approach until his gaze swept right past her.

"What the fuck? There's a hole or something over there!" When Naruto realised where he was pointing, Kakashi had to bite back a laugh. Sakura wasn't the first person to try to become unnoticeable rather than invisible, but he didn't know of a single genjutsu user who'd ever managed it. He hoped Sakura moved on sooner rather than later, or she'd fall even further behind Sasuke and be overtaken by Naruto.

"Stop messing around, you two. Sit down over here." Kakashi put as much authority as he could into his voice, and was pleased when both genin instantly did as they were told.

"We're going to be doing a mission tomorrow. I won't explain what exactly the plan is, as that will just make it harder for you to play your roles properly. We're going to be joining a caravan that passes through here on the way to Suna. I'll be the owner of the two carts we're using, and you'll be the children of my sister, who's sadly passed away. Yes, Naruto?" Kakashi stopped as Naruto raised his hand.

"What's she called?"

"Ummm..." There was one name in particular that Kakashi wanted to use, but it wasn't that great of an idea. Then again, he was a jonin – fuck it, there was only so much trouble he could get into. "Kushina. Her name is Kushina."

"Gotcha," Naruto said.

"If there are too many names to remember, someone will slip up. Do we call each other by our real names, or do we get fake ones?" Sakura asked, practical as ever. It was nice to see her use her brain – when Sasuke was around, she tended to contribute less.

"Everyone will use their real names, but don't mention your surnames. Calling yourself an Uzumaki or Uchiha will instantly mark you as a ninja, so we're all going to be Haruno for the duration of the infiltration. Other than that, just make sure to share any details you have to invent with everyone else so our story adds up. But avoid talking about your past if you can. We won't be going that far with the caravan anyway."

Naruto nodded, trying his best to look thoughtful. Sadly, his over-acting made it look more like a parody. Sakura giggled while Kakashi sighed. _Why did I think this was a good idea?_

-O-

The next chapter will be uploaded roughly two weeks from now. I'm interested in feedback on the OC missions I'm using, or if anyone has suggestions for any new ones.


	5. Chapter 5

The second mission was even worse than the first. Sasuke still didn't know what they were supposed to be doing, but the team had dressed up as traders and joined a large caravan heading towards Wind country. At least when they'd been resupplying that outpost, they weren't limited to the same pace as the slowest cart. Sasuke tried to swallow his anger and make the most of what few opportunities he had to improve.

He thought back to the scroll on meditation that he'd had to leave at home. _Deep breaths, let go of the present, and just exist in the moment. Don't do anything, and don't try to exert your will._ Huffing, Sasuke gave up. It went against everything he wanted to achieve. If it weren't for the chakra gains that meditation could give him, he'd have immediately discarded the idea. Maybe he just needed to be in the right frame of mind, and then he could reap the rewards that made some of the strongest monks almost the equal of a jonin.

 _Happy, calm thoughts... here we go..._

Long hot summer days made for wonderful travelling. They'd left Konoha's forests behind several days ago and were now in the middle of a huge sea of waist-high grass, with hills gently undulating towards the horizon. If he stood up on his cart, he could see for miles and miles. It was perfect, except for the constant dust in the air. His position near the back of the group meant that dozens of wheels had already created clouds of dust that hung around at head height, and he could feel the grit gathering in his nose and mouth. He'd taken to wearing a pair of goggles after the first day, to at least protect his eyes. The donkey pulling his cart looked more brown than grey from the accumulated filth of the road, and he didn't want to end up like that.

Sasuke had felt something for a moment, but it slipped away again as his thoughts took a negative turn. He got ready to try again.

Naruto walked over from Kakashi's larger wagon, where Sakura had been helping since the start of the mission. _Please don't talk to me, please don't talk to me..._

"Hello, Sasuke! How are you doing?" Naruto was as upbeat as ever, and had slung a red-and-green striped handkerchief over his face. Apart from making him look like the villain from a low-class piece of theatre, it would also keep out the dust. Sasuke wished he'd thought of it first, but he wasn't about to eat dirt for the next fifty miles or more just for the sake of his pride, so he resigned himself to following Naruto's lead.

"I'm fine." He rummaged in his bags for a few seconds before he found some cloth he could use to cover his mouth and nose. He was filthy all over, as there hadn't been a chance to wash since they'd set off with no real explanation from Kakashi about what they'd been sent to do, or why they had to infiltrate the caravan to do it. Sasuke supposed his cover identity wouldn't be too bothered, and wished he could feel the same.

"Kakashi says he's making his move tonight. We're stopping at the last village on this road before we enter Suna territory, and we should let him do the talking in the morning. He'll tell us the mission goal afterwards."

"Right," Sasuke said. He deliberately turned back towards his donkey, hoping to enjoy the (relative) solitude again. The silence, at least, had been wonderful so far – he'd spoken less than ten words so far today.

"Hey, Watanabe!" Naruto turned and called to another of the traders. "Is it time for lunch yet?"

 _Trust Naruto to make friends with absolutely everyone_. Sasuke hadn't talked to any of the other merchants or travellers, and he'd overheard two of them discussing whether he was mute. Sakura had also taken Kakashi's advice about keeping a low profile to heart. Naruto, on the other hand, knew the names of all twenty-odd people, and spent most of the day going from wagon to wagon and gossiping.

Sasuke didn't pay attention to Watanabe's reply. If they stopped for lunch, the wagons at the rear would hold first so that there wasn't a pile-up, and he would stop after they did. He only needed to watch two things: the cart in front of him, and the cart behind him.

And other than that, he could gaze at the fields or sky as much as he wanted. Which was not at all. He hadn't expected to miss Konoha so much, but the outside world seemed incredibly _boring_ in comparison.

He pushed his feelings down and leant back in his seat. _I wonder what Ino's doing right now?_ Loud laughter broke him from his daydreams and Naruto came running past, chasing some random girl from another cart. They were both having a great time, it seemed, although Sasuke doubted Naruto was smart enough to realise the girl wanted to be caught.

The cart behind Kakashi's turned off the track and into the higher grass, leaving the road empty for those passing them while they ate. Sasuke waited for Kakashi to do the same, then flicked the reins and tugged his donkey to the right. After coming to a stop off the road, he unhitched it and hobbled its legs so it wouldn't wander off too far while it was grazing. Kakashi had pulled out some food and was beckoning him over, so – after checking the cart was secured – he went to eat.

-O-

There was a nice team atmosphere during meal-times, Sakura thought, yawning. While Naruto was still off making friends with everyone, the other three were eating together in companionable silence. She'd run out of new things to say after just a few hours on the road, and Kakashi and Sasuke had both been quiet from the very start. _Not that that's unusual for them._

It was nice to see Naruto make some friends for once. He was quite prickly in Konoha, and didn't really get on with anyone, although it seemed to be mutual from what she could tell. She knew about the stuff he'd pulled in the past, but surely there was more to it than that? Either way, Naruto apparently had some hidden depths of charisma.

She looked two wagons over to where he was animatedly talking and eating at the same time. Somehow, it wasn't bothering the elderly couple sharing their food with him – Sakura could see their smiles from here. She finished her own meal, some rice balls and pickled vegetables, and lay back in the grass to relax for a moment. Kakashi was still slowly eating next to her, slipping food between the bandages over the lower half of his face. He still hadn't let anyone see what he looked like under his mask.

Sasuke shook her awake just as the first carts were setting off again. After getting over a moment of disorientation, she jumped up and walked over to Kakashi. She mumbled some thanks to Sasuke and slid into her seat. Sasuke went back to his own cart, which was ready to set off.

Sakura hadn't been sleeping well lately, but she hadn't thought she was tired enough to fall asleep during the day. The tension she'd had since the start of the mission was even worse now, with no outlet for the pressure she was feeling and no idea what the stakes were. She made a conscious decision not to reach down and touch the knives hidden in her dress; that sort of nervous tic would make infiltration impossible, and it was too early in her ninja career for her to start learning bad habits.

"So." Kakashi interrupted her thoughts without looking up from his book. Sakura had noticed within two minutes of him pulling it out that it was not, in fact, a cookbook and that pleasures of the flesh had nothing to do with fruit – except for chapter seven, of course... She'd tried to ignore Kakashi's choice of reading material, at first, but after several hours of nothing to do even pointless smut was entertaining enough to hold her attention.

What made it worse was that he knew she was reading over his shoulder – he was a jonin, there was no way he didn't know – and she knew he knew, and _he knew she knew he knew,_ and... but she refused to go any deeper. Mind games with Kakashi required a certain kind of madness, and if you didn't have it to start with, you'd end up really messed up. Sakura had met Guy. Apparently, he'd once been a normal jonin who'd repeatedly challenged Kakashi and lost.

She'd not replied yet. Sakura knew from experience that Kakashi would wait as long as it took for her to say something; he was _really_ prickly when it came to status games like that, despite his relaxed exterior. "What?" There, that was nice and non-specific.

"Neither of us wants to do this, but it's necessary. Let's talk about what happened when your ear was injured." Kakashi's single visible eye was still fixed on his book, but Sakura felt his attention shift onto her. Despite having most of his face hidden by bandages, he looked relaxed and at ease. She... didn't

 _Shit. Maybe if I just stay quiet..._ Sakura breathed out and unclenched her fists. She couldn't afford to show that sort of emotion while she was undercover as basically a peasant – even though nobody could hear them over the wind, as long as they stayed quiet, they'd be able to see if she got too upset. _That must be why Kakashi picked_ now _to talk about it. Stupid prick._

"I know you're listening, so I'll just read out loud until you're ready to talk. 'Tatomi gently pressed her heaving bosom against–'"

"Fine." Sakura carefully folded her hands in her lap, making sure she went through a few rude gestures at Kakashi. She took a deep breath. "What specifically do you want to talk about?"

"You're not the girl who froze up and took a knife to the face. Look at yourself – you're competent, calm, collected. Despite being injured on your first mission, you're not noticeably traumatised. And yet, you were a complete mess. You could have killed every prisoner in that group, just with a kunai. Any genin could have. What happened?" Kakashi's expression hadn't changed at all, and he was still staring at his book with his uncovered eye.

"I wasn't paranoid enough. I thought I was safe, and took an unnecessary risk. And I learned the hard way what a bad idea it was. Now I won't ever make the same mistake again." Sakura touched her ruined ear; it had started as a way to cope with nerves, but now it was just another habit.

"All it took was a single broken shuriken on the road to distract you. But you're wrong, you know." Kakashi blinked once, slowly, then reached out and plucked a long stalk of grass from next to the road. He slipped the end through the bandages on his face and bit down on it. The end twitched back and forth as he turned a page.

That was all it had taken, yes. Sakura had been on the lookout for a discarded weapon, after one of the notes she'd found had mentioned how rare they were. Normally, travellers collected them to sell for scrap. But the odds of one just lying on the road like that were very low, in that case. _Unless the note was lying. Either way, something's not quite right. That note was part of a trap, and someone set it. I've been played for a fool this entire time. Why did I ever trust someone who had to_ anonymously _give advice?_

 _But what did Kakashi mean? I'm_ wrong _?_

Kakashi responded to her quizzical glance. "It messed you up. You don't sleep well, and you make mistakes. You shouldn't have fallen asleep earlier – sure, it makes your cover deeper, but that was never an issue. It's an unnecessary risk, and you're so obsessed with avoiding them that it's blinded you."

"It wasn't a risk – it was the opposite of a risk! You're a jonin, so I'm safer sleeping next to you than... oh. What should I do?" Sakura hated being helpless, but even worse than that was _staying_ helpless. Closely following those was having Kakashi point things out to her that she refused to acknowledge, like her not feeling safe when she slept on her own.

"Don't worry about this mission. While I'm there, I can keep an eye on you. When we get back, go and talk to someone about it – your parents might not be the best choice, but if you feel comfortable with them it can work. A friend or someone else you trust is probably the best option." Kakashi nodded to himself, then slightly tilted the book so Sakura could see it better. It was a pretty clear message that the conversation was over.

 _How useless._ Sakura had already talked to Iruka, and this was how she was doing _afterwards_. Kakashi had some serious strengths, but mental health wasn't one of them. He was much better at causing problems than fixing them. The thing that would help her the most was figuring out who the mysterious figure that left her those notes was.

-O-

Naruto grinned as he walked over towards Morato's tent, a huge pale thing in the moonlight. The trader owned a full half of all the goods in the caravan, but acted like a massive tool. This would be just like a classic prank. In one hand he carefully carried a large glass bottle, and in the other was a bag with some snacks and a small knife hidden at the bottom.

"Hey Riko, Marsa! How've you been doing?" The two guards sat at the front of the carts, which had been put into a circle with the mules who pulled them in the middle, watching a small fire. A spear leant casually next to the tall man – Riko – while Marsa had a short sword belted to her waist.

"Sorry, Naruto, we can't hang tonight. Gotta look after the big man's stuff, ya know?" Riko said. Marsa nodded, pulling a cigarette out of a pouch and lighting it on the burning end of a branch from the fire. Naruto wasn't too discouraged. He'd built a decent rapport with both of them, despite the four year age gap, and besides, he wasn't trying to lure them away from their posts.

Naruto waved the bottle at them as he sat down next to Marsa. She didn't like him as much, and he wanted to avoid being confrontational. "Yeah, yeah, he's got lots of money and stuff. Tell me something I don't know. But surely he can't object to me keeping you company? Extra set of eyes, and all that?" He grinned widely as he shook the bottle again, a clear sloshing sound ringing out.

The two guards shared a quick look, then Marsa shrugged. _Jackpot._ If she didn't object, then Riko would definitely be on board. Naruto uncorked the bottle and took a quick swig, sputtering as the alcohol burned his mouth and throat. He passed it along with a grimace as they laughed at him. "First time with a real drink for the young boy, eh?" Riko grinned. Naruto gave him the finger.

Inside, he was practically dancing. When he'd volunteered for the hardest part of the job, he'd thought Kakashi would pass him over in favour of Sasuke. Finding out that he just had to occupy the guards was a bit of a let-down, but on the other hand, it was also really fun. Kakashi had even given him booze and permission to get drunk!

As the three of them chatted quietly around the fire, occasionally laughing or pushing each other, Naruto felt a slight sense of shame at taking advantage of their friendliness. On the other hand, Team Seven weren't going to steal anything, so he wasn't exactly breaking their trust as such, just misleading them.

It took a little more than half an hour for the bottle to be empty. Riko pulled a jug of wine out that he'd been saving, face very red in the firelight. Naruto stumbled to his feet, muttering about taking a leak, then walked a short distance into the grass. He stumbled slightly and swore, before finding the spot.

"Sasuke," he hissed. "They're pretty drunk, you and Sakura can go in now."

"Ok." The bastard had basically ignored him for the whole mission, but now he'd be depending on Naruto's skill to keep the guards occupied. _Take that, you lousy git!_

"What the fuck are you doing?" Sasuke was still whispering but sounded really angry all of a sudden. Naruto turned towards his voice, then remembered himself halfway through, and kept urinating forwards. "Needing to pee was supposed to be your _cover story_ , remember? You almost splashed me just now."

"I had a lot to drink." Business done, Naruto went back to the fire and the guards.

Riko was teasing Marsa about her boyfriend, who she'd left back home, and she was threatening to castrate him, when Naruto arrived. "I didn't know you had a boy-toy? What's he like, is he a guard too?"

"Nah, he's a Suna ninja. Actually– " Riko cut Marsa off with a short hand motion.

"Someone's there."

Heart hammering, Naruto butted in. "How can you tell? I can't hear anything except the wind." He _had_ heard Sakura brush against the edge of a wagon, but it should have been inaudible for civilians. Which meant, Naruto realised with slowly mounting dread, that he wasn't dealing with civilians.

"Appearances can be deceiving, you know," Riko said. "It might impress you to know that we're actually Sunagakure's finest." He leant heavily on his spear, clearly drunk, but turned towards the earlier sound again with narrowed eyes. Naruto winced as he heard a quiet thud. The two Suna ninja tied on their headbands, and the symbol of the Sand shocked him out of his daze.

"I definitely heard something that time," Marsa said.

"Ninja, really? W-wow, that must really be something," Naruto stuttered. What was he going to do now? They were already heading towards his team-mates, carrying a torch along with them. If they got close enough, his team was screwed. _Not only are they ninja, but Chunin as well._ If Kakashi had actually paid attention instead of reading his recipe books all the time, then he would have been able to warn them and this whole situation could have been avoided.

He followed the ninja, taking care to stumble over the bottle they'd emptied already. _That should warn Sakura and Sasuke, but just to make sure..._ "Hey guys, wait for me!" he called.

Riko and Marsa both turned, shushing him with fingers pressed against their lips, then moved stealthily towards the edge of one of the carts. Marsa flattened herself against the side, blending with the shadows, while Riko pointed his spear at the small gap in the grass that Naruto could see even from ten paces away had recently been crawled over.

Sasuke came out first, bursting past the spear's tip and swinging for Riko. There was a glint of metal in each hand, and Riko quickly dropped his spear in favour of his own kunai. Once the distance was closed, a spear was too unwieldy for most ninja.

As Marsa was about to step into Sasuke's blind spot, Naruto put the point of his small knife at her throat. "I'm sorry," he said, and really meant it. A soft puff of smoke later, two of his clones tied her up while she glared daggers at him. He watched them bind her thumbs together, remembering the lesson where he'd learned it as though through a thick fog. The legs came next, and then a gag for her mouth.

Naruto sent a clone ahead towards Sasuke and Riko, running out and shouting for them both to stop. Sasuke stopped pressing the attack and Riko took advantage of it, grabbing his spear again. He turned towards the clone just in time to receive a fist to the face. The spear-tip stabbed through the clone as Sasuke jumped on his back. The two wrestled over the spear, Sasuke being slightly worse off, when Sakura grabbed Riko's leg, using the chakra-laden smoke from the dispelled clone as cover to get close. Naruto walked out, his second clone carrying Marsa. "Surrender and we won't hurt you."

"Fuck you." Riko slurred, then kicked Sakura's head with his other foot, knocking her unconscious. Sasuke used the opening to stick a kunai into his arm, anger suddenly appearing on his face. The change from the blank expression he'd had before was startling.

Riko stumbled and fell, blood pouring from the deep wound Sakura had sliced before he'd managed to knock her out. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto had noticed the kunai in the darkness and confusion. The fight was effectively over. Naruto's clone immediately moved to tie the second prisoner up, but Riko speared him too, dispersing him from his prone position on the floor. He was lying in a slowly growing puddle of his own blood, and gritting his teeth against the pain.

"Stop being so stupid," Naruto said. "If you let me tie you up, I can bandage your leg." He stepped forward, then feinted in a quick motion towards Riko's head. Sasuke used the distraction to slink up behind him and punched him out.

Naruto rushed to tie up Riko before he woke up, and kept a wary eye on Marsa the whole time. He felt much too tired, and the alcohol left in his system wasn't helping. Sasuke sat down and started bandaging himself, before patching up the prisoners.

Two minutes later, Kakashi appeared in their midst, speaking in his usual slow, measured tone. "I see things didn't go quite to plan. The whole idea behind this was that nobody knows anything happened. Let's hope I can make alternate arrangements."

Naruto was in no mood for games, which was always a disadvantage when dealing with Kakashi. "What idea? You still haven't told us what the whole point of this was."

"I'll explain later. For now, you guys should head off, while I set up something to stop anyone from wondering where we went." Kakashi left before Naruto could ask anything else, slipping away into the night.

Naruto made some clones to carry their prisoners and picked up Sakura himself. Sasuke murmured something about scouting and moved off ahead, staying parallel to the road and keeping low enough that the long grass went up to his neck. With one last glance back at the campfire, which was almost going out now that nobody was adding new wood, Naruto led his small procession off after Sasuke, towards Konoha.

-O-

Kakashi summoned Pakkun, one of his dog familiars. Passing over a scroll, he quickly gave him some instructions. He stuffed the valuables left in the carts he'd rented into a small sack and scattered a few traces of a very illegal drug on the front bench. Hopefully, the other travellers would buy the implied explanation for his team's disappearance – it wasn't exactly common for smugglers to try to sneak over the border at night, but it wasn't unheard-of either.

There was a faint trail where his team had passed through the thick grass, but Kakashi disguised it as he followed them. The mission hadn't gone according to plan, but that wasn't all bad, necessarily.

Capturing two prisoners was an added burden, but their ransom would be a nice windfall for anyone on a genin salary. Other than that, the fact that they'd had some combat experience was a pretty big advantage for when they entered the Chunin Exams in a few years' time. It also made them eligible for a battlefield promotion, but he brushed that idea aside. Team Seven was nowhere near ready for that – none of them.

Sasuke had looked _almost_ Chunin-caliber earlier, he reflected. His combat skills were formidable and although he currently lacked experience, he was shaping up to be a serious contender for not just an exam promotion but also a tournament win afterwards. Naruto was more devious and manipulative than he'd thought at first, but still impressive. Put together, they had most of a Chunin's core skills, but Naruto was physically not strong enough and Sasuke lacked emotional control.

Sakura was more complicated, but he'd wait to see how she dealt with her issues before evaluating her.

As he came level with the small group, he decided to shadow them a while longer. Information was a ninja's most valuable tool, so the very best ninja were usually incredibly nosy, and Kakashi was no exception.

Sasuke was leading silently, and steering towards the tree line as fast as he possibly could. It would be harder to track them there, and Konoha ninja generally had the advantage when it came to fighting amongst trees, simply due to their practice. They should eventually hit one of the many roads that crossed through Konoha's forests, where they could turn towards home.

Kakashi wasn't sure he wanted to do that just yet. There was so much more he could teach out here, away from prying eyes, easily damaged buildings and pesky training restrictions. As he silently shadowed the genin, he considered the best way to use the few days left before they were expected back.

Sakura groaned and opened her eyes. Kakashi noticed with amusement that the real Naruto was still carrying her, instead of making another clone and leaving his own hands free. Naruto was slightly flushed and breathing just a touch more heavily than usual – Kakashi had seen what came next enough times to get into _just_ the right position for a good view.

Naruto leant down and kissed Sakura. Her eyes went wide, and for a split second, she leant back into it–

"Here you are, my pretty little team!" Sakura leapt out of Naruto's arms as though she'd been scalded. Kakashi smiled behind his mask. _It's the little things that keep you sane_.

"Now let's have a little debriefing here," he continued, gesturing for the genin and their prisoners to gather around the tree stump he'd jumped to. A simple genjutsu stopped the Suna ninja from being able to see or hear clearly; he'd come up with it while blind drunk and trying to gamble with some sober chunin. Naruto was glaring daggers at him and Sakura was carefully not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Wind country is a dry and boring place full of dry and boring people. One of the many ways they try to stay mostly sane is their cooking, but all the plants that grow in the desert and are also dry and boring, so they import spices.

"Now dear Morato had a very valuable cargo that he's brought all the way from Lightning country. It's the first fresh load of spices this year, and if he gets to Sunagakure before any other merchants carrying the same spices then he can expect to make a huge profit. Our employer is three days behind him, so we were supposed to slow Morato down without tipping him off that someone's been meddling."

At that last part, Naruto butted in. "Why not just take him captive, or break his cart, or ruin his cargo?" He was very confrontational, Kakashi considered. Maybe he held a grudge over the interruption?

Kakashi shook his head. "Our employer is a rival of Morato, but he's not an _enemy_. A lot of civilians are uncomfortable with violence or destruction. If you want blood and death, you'll need to look at politics instead of economics – the nobility is even more bloodthirsty than most missing-nin. We were supposed to plant some illegal goods on his caravan, so it would be searched, which takes absolutely ages. He'd arrive in Suna at least week later and get a decent price, while our employer makes a fortune. Besides, it's not our job to tell civilians what to do, unless they hire us as advisors. Konoha makes a sizable amount of money off this operation and all we have to do is sneak some stuff into a cart."

"Why didn't you tell us the mission details beforehand?" Sasuke asked.

"You're genin, which means you'll need to get used to not being told the full story. Plus it's more fun for me," Kakashi admitted without a trace of shame. "One day you'll all be jonin, and then you can do the same to your teams. It's surprisingly amusing, actually."

He sniffed the air, part of an almost-forgotten habit whenever he was outside Konoha. That faint scent was... _Kurenai's?_ What was she doing out here? If something had gone wrong, he should _probably_ make contact and offer his help, annoying as it was.

Kakashi looked towards the source of the smell, quickly shifting the bandages still covering his Sharingan. There was a stream around two hundred paces away that Kurenai must have stopped at, and a route leading away that she'd come and left by.

"It looks like there are more Konoha ninja around here, so I'm going to go and see if they need a hand. Wait here and set up camp," Kakashi said before quickly taking to the trees.

It took him less than two minutes to reach the village where Kurenai and her team were, less than five minutes to find out that Team Eight were on a training exercise and not in any danger, and less than six minutes to get back to his team with Kurenai and her genin in tow.

By the time he got to the clearing, all that was left of Team Seven and their prisoners were two shredded sets of restraints and a rather impressive string of craters leading further into the woods.

-O-

A/N: Next update will be in two weeks. Also, if you're looking for a Naruto fanfiction community, whether as a writer or reader, come check out /r/NarutoFanfiction on Reddit. It's small but friendly, and we discuss and recommend stories, give each other feedback and have regular one-shot competitions.


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto lay on the ground and stared at the stars. He wasn't quite sure what to think, except that the day had been much too long for his taste. He grinned as he thought back to his first kiss – with Sakura! – although it hopefully wouldn't be their last.

A choking sound brought him back to the present. Tied up opposite him, Marsa was coughing and choking, and some sort of liquid was spilling out of her gag. She was frantically trying to reach her face with her hands, clawing in desperation, but the ropes were stopping her. Without thinking, Naruto moved towards her. Sasuke grabbed his shoulder, shaking his head.

"She might be faking it." Sasuke sounded dreadfully cold, but his eyes flicked back and forth between Marsa's gag and Sakura's bruised forehead. "If she isn't, we have some time to think first."

"She might be _dying_. Besides, she never hurt anyone. It was Riko who hurt Sakura." Naruto shook off Sasuke's grip and bent down to look at the gag more closely. Sasuke let him.

Marsa's eyes were rolling madly, and Naruto could see the whites all the way around the iris. There was definitely something strange about the gag. It glistened in the moonlight, covered with something that might be blood or might be vomit, and the ropes holding it in place were snarled. _No wonder she can't breathe_ , Naruto thought. He loosened one side of Marsa's gag slightly just as Sakura called out a warning.

"It's an illusion!"

Marsa spat a mouthful of compressed air at Naruto's face just as he ducked. He felt a handful of cuts on his scalp, over his headband, but managed to roll back and out of the way as she launched more attacks. Her hands were contorted into a handseal despite the bindings, and he noticed in a detached way that she'd dislocated both her thumbs. Shreds of the gag that had been in her mouth drifted slowly to the ground.

Her last attack was directed at herself, tearing deep gashes through her flesh, her clothes – and her ropes. She staggered to her feet and popped her thumbs back into place, a savage grin on her face. Her lips were torn and bleeding from the wind chakra she'd channelled without using enough handseals. It looked absolutely terrifying.

A whisper of movement was all the warning Naruto had before he was bowled over from behind by Riko and Sasuke grappling each other. Riko was dripping more blood from his own fresh wounds and was using his former bindings to try and choke Sasuke.

Naruto struggled out from under the tangled mass of limbs, turning just in time to catch a kick to the face that sent him back to the floor. He had the presence of mind to grab onto Marsa's foot and kicked into the side of her standing leg. She stayed upright through sheer force of will, forming some quick and sloppy handseals then inhaling deeply.

Sakura shimmered into view, dropping an illusion that had let her get behind Marsa. As she breathed out, Sakura put her in a headlock, forcing the technique to the side where it bored a deep crater in the ground next to Naruto's head. A dust cloud blocked his vision for a moment.

Now that Sakura had stopped hiding in her genjutsu, Marsa elbowed her in the ribs and kicked her back into a tree. Blood running from his nose and hands shaking, Naruto growled. He made the seal for his only proper ninjutsu technique and surrounded both Marsa and Riko with dozens of shadow clones.

"You're going down," the mass rumbled with one voice. Each drew a kunai with one hand and three shuriken with the other. Sasuke grappled Riko into a full nelson and stomped on his injured foot until his leg gave way, then leapt away as a wave of Narutos surged forward. Marsa launched another wave of wind to clear a path to her teammate, and ran over and grabbed him. She dropped a smoke bomb before a dozen illusory copies of the two Suna ninja leapt out of the rapidly expanding cloud and scattered into the trees.

A huge volley of shuriken, courtesy of the horde of Narutos, dispelled over half of the simple clones, and Naruto set off after the nearest trail, intent on chasing them down. Three of his shadow clones followed him. He smelled blood, tasted it too, and he wanted more. With one last glance at Sakura, struggling into a sitting position and holding her ribs, he darted forwards.

By the time he caught up to the limping duo of ninja, the other three teams of hunters – as well as their prey – were out of sight and hearing range. He barrelled into Riko and Marsa with a full-body tackle and they dissolved into a cloud of chakra-laden smoke, leaving him to scream his fury at the night sky.

Naruto set off back to the clearing, hoping that the real enemies had been caught by some of his clones, but he realised that he could try to catch up to one of the other groups. He turned and went at a right angle to his previous path when he smelled fresh blood.

A small patch of bushes was rustling out of time with the breeze. Stealthily, he drew a pair of kunai and crept in closer. It was obvious in hindsight – the Suna ninja had sent out _just_ clones, while they layered another technique to hide their real bodies. They'd almost made it out, too.

"Surprise!" his own voice shouted from his left. One of his clones had apparently lost its patience and threw a fistful of shuriken at the bush, cackling as it did so. Marsa dragged a half-dead looking Riko out, although he still somehow managed to keep his genjutsu active. Naruto wouldn't have even noticed them move if it weren't for Riko's ragged breathing and the tracks they left in the dirt; there were furrows from their shoes and splashes of blood from their wounds.

For some reason, they were _still_ trying to run. Marsa spat another wind technique at his clone, dispelling it, then swayed and almost fell. Naruto and the two remaining duplicates moved in to surround her. He stepped forward. "Just surrender, and I promise we won't hurt you."

Naruto saw 'Riko' shimmer out of existence at the same time as he felt a knife cut into his back. He looked down and saw the tip of a kunai coming out of his stomach, to the right of the Kyubi's seal. A roar of anger and pain came out as more of a whimper through teeth that felt too long and sharp to be his own. He fell to the ground, but it seemed so very far away...

-O-

Sasuke dispatched the last clone with a frenzied stab and growled at the lack of blood on his kunai. He followed the two Naruto clones with him back to the clearing when they both disappeared in a puff of smoke around a hundred feet away. He stopped, listening hard, but couldn't hear anything other than the wind in the treetops and the call of an owl. Whatever had dispelled them hadn't been near him, which meant it must have been Naruto ending the technique.

Sasuke raced towards the clearing, nose twitching. He wasn't a particularly good tracker, but enhanced senses were part and parcel of being a ninja, so he could pick out strong smells, like blood, over a long distance. And right now, he smelled a lot of it. He veered off to the left and charged through some thick brush, stopping in front of Naruto's unmoving body. There was a kunai still stuck through his guts, and cuts on his hands and chest, but he was breathing, if barely.

The two Suna ninja were _definitely_ dead. Sasuke froze as he saw them, so similar to parts of – no, now wasn't the time to think of that. The two Suna ninja weren't a threat anymore, and now he had to help Naruto. He didn't have any medical supplies on him, as he was still wearing the disguise he'd needed that morning.

He ripped strips of cloth off his shirt and used the few mouthfuls left in his waterskin to clean and bandage Naruto's face. The wounds weren't deep, and the bandages didn't soak through with blood after he put them on, so he took that as a good sign. The cuts in Naruto's chest were deeper, but Sasuke bound them tightly so that they'd stop bleeding as well. After a few minutes' work, he realised he'd have to look at the last and worst injury.

Sasuke had no idea what to do. The kunai was in the wound, and it had cut through clothes, so there were fibres trapped in there that would need to be cleaned out to avoid infection. However, he vaguely remembered that Naruto could bleed to death if he removed the knife, as right now it was blocking a lot of the severed blood vessels. As he dithered, not sure of what to do, Kakashi landed beside him.

"What happened?" he asked as he quickly and efficiently removed the kunai, washed the wound out with a water technique, smeared some antiseptic cream into it, and bandaged it tightly.

"The prisoners used a genjutsu to fake an injury. Once the female had her mouth free she used a wind technique to break the male's bindings. I attempted to subdue him and was partially successful, but she freed herself and neutralised Sakura. As they were very heavily injured, they attempted to flee by using clones as decoys. We split up to pursue them, using Naruto's shadow clones to follow every trail, and Naruto must have caught up to the real ones. They were already heavily injured at that point, but I don't know what happened next. Obviously," Sasuke carefully avoided looking at the bodies as Kakashi covered them with black sheets of cloth, "we can tell from the scene that Naruto successfully overpowered them but was injured."

Kurenai caught up to them, followed by Sakura and three other genin. Sasuke assumed they were the Konoha ninja Kakashi had gone to find. Shino seemed unaffected by the scene in front of him, but Kiba looked queasy and Hinata was almost in tears. Sakura had clenched fists swinging at her sides, a knot of worry at her brow, and clear lines of tension in her jaw.

"Does anyone have training in medical ninjutsu?" Sasuke asked. Nobody replied, but he noticed that Hinata had her Byakugan active. "What about you? Can you see what's wrong?"

She shook her head and turned away without speaking.

Naruto groaned and shifted, and Sakura dashed over to him. His eyes opened and for a moment he looked so vulnerable that Sasuke looked away. When he turned back, Sakura cradled Naruto's head in her arms, uncaring of the half-congealed blood clinging to him. Kakashi was gently probing some of Naruto's injuries.

Sasuke took in the scene – one wounded and bandaged teammate, another covered in blood and holding him, and hovering over them the teacher who'd once more failed to be there when it mattered. He swore to himself, there and then, that _no matter what_ he'd make sure it didn't happen again.

"Alright, Naruto, you should be fine," Kakashi said, smiling through his mask – and when had he put it back on again? "The stomach wound wasn't as bad as it looked, and after a bit of rest we'll be able to join Team Eight for some team training."

Naruto grinned, and for the first time that evening, Sasuke was really and truly glad. Naruto had regained some colour while Kakashi patched him up, and now he looked a long way from the almost-corpse he'd been a few scant minutes earlier.

His attitude was back to normal, as well, Sasuke realised as Naruto started talking. "Hell yeah! We're gonna get so strong that when we get back to Konoha, everyone will be amazed." Naruto fiddled with his bandages, peeking under those on his chest and then ripping them off. Sasuke moved to stop him but the cuts were completely healed, without leaving any scars or paler patches of new skin.

Naruto looked guilty when he noticed Sasuke's concern and curiosity, but took Kakashi's offered T-shirt and quickly changed into cleaner clothes, despite the blood still liberally caked on him.

"Sorry, show's over for tonight," Kakashi said, shepherding Kurenai's team away. She still hadn't said a word, but Sasuke had noticed her and Kakashi using silent hand motions to communicate. Jonin were a strange bunch, but as quirks went, not talking much was quite harmless. "Team Seven will set up camp north of here, and rendezvous with you in the morning for some team training. Let's get some sleep after all this excitement."

-O-

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed. Kakashi had put her on watch while he slept for a few hours before dawn, and she'd completely run out of patience now he wasn't watching any more. You didn't just kiss a girl and then almost get yourself killed before talking to her! She needed to have a serious, grown-up conversation with him.

"What is it?" Naruto mumbled, rolling over to face her in his sleeping bag. "Sakura! What are you doing in here? This isn't your tent, it's–"

"Yeah, but listen, I wanted to talk to you." Sakura knew that if Kakashi caught her leaving Naruto's tent in the morning he'd tease her to death, but she couldn't wait that long. Naruto quickly tried to sort his hair out as she talked, but the best he managed was a slightly less scruffy bedhead. He'd washed before sleeping, she realised, because he'd still been so bloody. "So I was thinking–"

"Could you keep it down?" Sasuke said from the other side of Naruto, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Sakura most certainly did not squeak – hardened ninja who'd successfully fought a chunin the day before didn't ever squeak – but she was definitely surprised.

There went any hope of privacy until they got back to Konoha, she supposed.

"I just wanted to let you know I'll be making breakfast soon. I have to get back to my post outside, I'm supposed to be keeping watch. See you later." Face scarlet, she backed out of the open tent flap and quickly dashed back to the tree stump she'd been holding a lookout from earlier.

By the time that she'd finished cooking breakfast – Kakashi had caught some rabbits the night before, and she'd gutted them and put them on makeshift skewers – Naruto and Sasuke had both dressed themselves. Kakashi stuck his head out of his tent just as she moved the last of the meat skewers off the fire, nose twitching appreciatively.

"Right," he said, all business. Sakura noticed that he'd changed into his jonin gear, but he still looked almost as non-threatening as his civilian cover identity had. He moved as though he was still half-asleep, and the way he yawned and rubbed at his messy hair reminded her of a ten-year-old. Despite knowing what he was capable of, she found it hard to take him seriously, but she supposed that was the point. "Today I'm going to be teaching you and Kurenai's lot how to climb trees. It's important, so you should... actually, I'm going to have to repeat myself for Team Eight anyway, so I'll just wait until then to explain it."

Sakura paid close attention, but Kakashi was still able to eat without showing either his face or any effort made to conceal it. She was never the most patient person at the best of times, and it seemed he was deliberately trying to rile her up.

"What actually happened last night?" Sakura asked when she grew bored of the silence. "I know that Naruto must have tracked them down, but how did he kill them and why was he so injured? And how did you find us?"

Kakashi tossed the last empty skewer away. "Naruto did something very dangerous and stupid. He tried to chase after a pair of chunin alone."

"But they were injured–" Naruto interrupted.

"Yes, but it was still a bad idea, _clearly._ Look at how badly you could have been hurt. If that stab had been a bit higher, it could have gone through your heart. Or, since you don't seem to care about injuries to yourself, imagine if one of your teammates had taken those wounds instead! There was no need to hurry – I could, and did, track them down without any issues. Team Eight is also a tracking team, and in fact, Hinata spotted the two Suna ninja before even I did.

"And you all learned a valuable lesson about taking prisoners. Some of them, for whatever reason – pride, anger, fear, or plain idiocy – do stupid things and then die for them. If you're ever captured, stay calm, try to conceal your identity, and Konoha will ransom you back."

Sakura nodded to herself. She'd learned a little about the prisoner system the hidden villages used, but after seeing it break down the night before she'd been unsure about how effective it was in the field.

"We still have three days before we need to head back to Konoha, as we're not travelling back with a caravan, so Kurenai and I will be teaching you lot some important techniques. And before you ask, the reason we're doing it here is because technically you're still on mission pay until we get back to the village."

Kakashi piled some more wood on the fire, then covered it with earth, to keep it alive for later. Naruto and Sasuke finished grabbing their gear, while Sakura refilled her waterskin, and then all four of them set off for the meeting point with Team Eight.

They were late, as expected of any team led by Kakashi, but Kiba wasn't visibly angry yet so Sakura estimated that it couldn't have been by more than five minutes.

"Alright! Now that we're all here, let me explain the training," Kurenai began, glancing at Kakashi. "There's a technique for clinging to flat surfaces using your chakra. You can use it to, for example, climb trees without your hands."

She walked up one of the taller trees nearby to demonstrate, continuing until she was hanging upside down from one of the branches. Sakura noticed that her dress didn't seem to be affected by gravity, and idly wondered how to replicate the effect. Kiba had seemed quite disappointed.

Kakashi continued the lecture from where Kurenai had left off. "Now, what you have to do is push chakra out of your feet and cling to the tree with it. If you use a steady amount, it will anchor you, but too much at once will launch you away and too little will make you fall off. Most genin learn this at some point, but I want you lot to be able to do it in your sleep. It's incredibly versatile, and you can use it for anything from catching big, bulky items to grappling with enemies. If you can stick to anything you touch, then a single finger on the flat of a blade can be enough to disarm someone. Likewise, you can stick your hands to your own weapons to stop anyone from doing the same to you."

He tossed a kunai in front of every genin. "Ask Kurenai for more advice if you need it. I'm going to catch up on some sleep." And with that, Kakashi sprawled out in the shade and folded his hands behind his head. It took less than five seconds for him to start snoring.

Sakura walked over to a nice tall tree with a straight, smooth trunk. She pressed her hand against it, cycling chakra through until she felt a weak grip form. As she slowly increased the chakra level, she found that the bond strengthened until she couldn't pull her hand away. A loud thump drew her attention to the tree next to her, where Naruto had tried to immediately run straight up his tree. He was rubbing his head and grumbling from where he'd fallen. Sasuke tried not to laugh, but Sakura could see the mirth in his eyes.

"Is... is this normal for you?" Kurenai asked. Sakura turned around and saw that Team Eight were all staring in disbelief. "Does he just give you a task and then leave you to it?"

"Not all the time! It's because he thinks we can do it on our own, that's why," Naruto said. Sakura had also felt an immediate urge to jump to Kakashi's defence, but on reflection, he really did just leave them to it most of the time.

Kurenai marched over to where Kakashi lay, and Sasuke shrugged and turned back to his tree. He'd already made it several steps up the first time, and was getting ready for another attempt.

The snoring stopped, and Sakura watched Kakashi and Kurenai argue quietly. Despite straining her ears she couldn't hear anything, but trying to listen in on jonin was a fool's errand anyway. She saw the way Kurenai reacted as though she'd been slapped, and then storm off, muttering a parting shot that Kakashi so obviously _didn't_ react to that it was clear he'd been completely blindsided.

After a few seconds of staring into space, he leapt to his feet and walked over to the genin, calling out instructions.

"Right. Here's what we'll do. Sakura, make a run at the tree. See if you can get to the top. Sasuke, try to attach your hand first. Naruto, you're going to make me a dozen clones and then try a preliminary chakra control exercise first. Hinata, same as Sakura. Shino, Kiba, same as Sasuke."

Sakura was in motion before she consciously decided to obey. With every step she took, her foot latched onto the tree smoothly, and then disengaged easily when she moved on. Before she knew it she was in the tree's crown, staring down at the small faces of the other genin. Hinata had made it halfway up before falling, but was picking herself up and ready to go again.

"Right! Sakura, come stand halfway down the tree and wait there." The rest of Kakashi's speech was too indistinct to hear, and Sakura decided to try to find out how to enhance her hearing with chakra. The small advantages that all ninja had were nice, of course, but she quietly admitted to herself that she had a huge nosy streak, and for that, 'small advantage' wasn't enough.

She picked her way back down the tree, trying to walk instead of run this time. It wasn't any harder and soon she stood near where she guessed the midpoint of the trunk was. A pinecone bounced off her forehead and she almost fell, slipping a few steps down the tree before she re-established a firm grip with her feet. A row of kunai smacked into the wood above and below her, and Kakashi called up to her again.

"You need to stay between the two sections I've marked, and Naruto's clones will throw things at you. Dodge them or let them hit you, but don't fall."

 _Why did Kurenai have to stick her bloody nose into our business,_ Sakura thought bitterly. Motivated Kakashi was interesting for all of half a minute, then he turned into a slavedriver. With ten or so clones all bombarding her with clods of earth and pieces of wood, she soon lost control and landed on the ground again. Kakashi ordered her back up and made her do twenty press-ups while attached to the tree, promising to double them every time she fell.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke and Shino race each other. While neither quite made it even halfway, Sasuke was doing slightly better. Kiba was left in the dust, and Naruto was still doing an exercise she'd completed for fun a few weeks ago. It had been incredibly easy for her – weave a thread through her fingers, only using her chakra – but he had a frown on his face and as she watched, the thread caught fire.

Another impact on her legs as one of Naruto's clones hit her with a small rock brought her attention back to her current situation. Sakura caught the next stone and hurled it back down, neatly puncturing one of the clones. Kakashi smiled and waved, then talked to Naruto for a few seconds. Two new clones replaced the fallen one. Kakashi gave her another thumbs up, his message clear.

She didn't last more than half an hour before she was too exhausted to even stick to the tree, let alone dodge anything or do exercise, and Kakashi sent her over to Kurenai, who was watching in bemusement from an old log that lay along an edge of the clearing.

"Kakashi suggested that I ask you for advice on genjutsu techniques, as your students are currently all occupied," Sakura said politely. Kurenai patted the patch of bark next to her, smiling kindly.

"Kakashi sometimes needs someone to give him a little motivation," she replied. "And I'm sure I don't want to know what he _actually_ told you."

Sakura nodded. She was surprised at how obvious the two jonin were being in their little disagreement. In the Academy, the teachers had gone to a lot of effort to put up a united front.

Kurenai started to lecture, and Sakura could see the real enthusiasm she had for the topic. "Now, the important thing to remember when casting an illusion is that lies are contagious. When you make the target believe that there is a barrier, then you must also explain _why_ there is a barrier. If you show them their comrades' corpses, there should be a reason _why_ the corpses are specifically in that place, and why they have – or don't have – particular injuries. Furthermore, the comrades being there must also be explained – and then you must move on to why the victim wasn't aware of this beforehand. From this, we can see that to craft a perfect illusion, you must create an entire world at once..."

Sakura let the voice wash over her as her scrapes and cuts faded from her awareness.

-O-

Naruto slashed the tree, marking his position as he flipped away from the trunk. There was a footprint left in the bark where he'd accidentally added an extra chunk of chakra to one foot, but in just a few hours he'd gone from the dead last, below even Kiba, to challenging Shino for fourth place. Sakura had come back from wherever she'd gone off to, and now she and Hinata were sparring on the side of one of the trees.

It was really funny to watch, actually – Hinata was a much better hand-to-hand fighter, but struggled to stay on the tree, while Sakura slid and hopped and swung around like a monkey but couldn't afford to take a single hit from Hinata. The way they moved together and apart again in strange, fluid sweeps that kept both feet on the ground, or in this case tree, reminded him of some dancers he'd seen at a fair. The slaps, weak punches and occasional leg sweeps, on the other hand, looked like children squabbling over the last biscuit.

Sakura looked particularly fetching with her sweaty hair plastered to her head and a fierce scowl on her face. A rock bounced off the back of Naruto's head and Kakashi shouted at him. "No gawking, focus on the training!" He sighed and made another run at the tree.

At lunchtime, Naruto quickly swallowed the rice and pickled vegetables that Kakashi had made, and walked over to where the jonin lay, reading his ever-present book. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, and Naruto sat next to him.

"What actually happened last night? I remember getting stabbed and then I woke up and I was mostly fine and the Suna ninja were dead," he asked.

"Let's discuss this somewhere in private." Kakashi gestured over to Kiba. "He's listening in right now and thinks I don't know."

The tips of Kiba's ears turned red . He pulled his hood up and turned away from them, making a big show of talking to his dog. Naruto followed Kakashi a short way into the woods, and they sat down on a fallen log.

"I'm not an expert when it comes to seals. In fact, I only know of one person who could talk to you about that particular seal and be really sure that he's telling the truth. However, I can make a pretty good guess as to what happened. You were stabbed in the stomach, and then fell unconscious after you bled out, right? Your seal lets enough chakra through to heal you, and when you're heavily injured that means that your... _tenant_ , let's call him, probably has a relatively large amount of influence."

"So the Kyubi killed them?" Naruto remembered Riko teaching him how to play dice, and then promptly losing three times in a row. Marsa had had a boyfriend who would never see her again.

"Yes, but they would have lived if you hadn't chased them. I was nearby and there's no way two injured chunin could escape me, and also no way they could force me to kill them. There's also no way they could have escaped Team Eight, but you didn't know at the time that they were nearby, so you get a pass on that." Kakashi's voice was matter-of-fact but not particularly cold. He might as well have been discussing the weather.

"Why did they fight? Why didn't they just surrender?" Naruto whispered. The pointlessness of it all was what shocked him, rather than the brutality.

"Take a deep breath and relax. Don't forget that they didn't just try to escape, they also tried to kill you. Maybe it was pride, that they didn't want to be captured by genin. Maybe it was fear, that we'd torture them for information. Or maybe it was just arrogance and stupidity where they thought they could get away. No matter the cause, it led to them being in here." Kakashi pointed to a pair of small scrolls in a pocket of his vest. "Normally, you won't have to fight, let alone kill, someone who you got to know beforehand. Fighting against other ninja is also quite uncommon even for chunin. You're really ahead of the curve, and Sasuke and Sakura too."

Kakashi put his book away and leant forward, beckoning Naruto close. "You're struggling with the tree climbing, but there's something that might help you. Do you want to hear a secret?"

Naruto nodded. This was what he'd imagined a jonin teacher to be like when he'd first graduated, and the lack of earth-shattering secrets and mystical lore had left him a little bit disappointed.

"So you know that meditation improves chakra capacity, as does physical exercise. Chakra is a combination of two energies, after all, and if you improve one of them then the end result is better. Physical energy increases pretty steadily as you train your body, but when it comes to mental energy, some experiences 'train' it much better than others.

"Meditation is one example, but fighting – especially against other ninja – is the single best way to improve your chakra capacity. In general, more mental energy also makes the chakra easier to control. Right now Team Seven has improved the most out of any team that graduated this year. I know for a fact that none of the other teams have taken any C-ranks that involved enemies or potential enemies, and you guys have had _two_ fights with enemy ninja and a prisoner escort besides.

"And that's one of the secrets of chakra. You can see why we don't tell everyone – if Sasuke, for example, knew how much his strength could go up if he picked fights all the time he'd do some really stupid things. But I know I can trust you with this because you'll put the information to good use.

"Now go and get back to training. I want to see you at the top of that tree by the time I finish my nap, and then we'll do some sparring." Kakashi summoned a bedroll out of a scroll and lay down on it. His one visible eye closed. Naruto crept away, determined now to prove to him that he was worth the time and effort of teaching. The last, and only, previous person to give him personal attention and teaching had been Iruka.

By the time Kakashi wandered back into the clearing, Naruto was upside down and hanging from underneath the highest branch that would bear his weight. His clones were hurling anything they could grab at him, but he clumsily dodged or blocked almost all of it. His feet left shallow prints in the bark as he strode from side to side.

Where Sakura and Hinata were graceful, and Sasuke was efficient, Naruto had the subtlety and control of a bull, but he what he lacked in appearance he made up for in endurance. All the other genin were resting, and Naruto felt a stab of pride at how he knew he must look. Kakashi would see Sasuke, the talented one, and Sakura, the clever one, sitting at the bottom while he, Naruto, the awesome one, was at the top.

-O-

A/N: Uni is taking up a lot of my time, so my next chapter will be delayed - expect it sometime around the end of October/start of November. I'm also kinda tempted to redo the first six chapters, but I'd prefer to put that off until I've written more.

I had a rant here about some stories and how they create a massive issue over 'oh no, it's [a ninja]'s first kill' and write pages and pages of wangst. However, it was quite long and not very interesting, so this summary should suffice to express my feelings on the matter.


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